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VISION 

OF THE 

EVENING ii MORNING 



A Study of the Prophecy of 
"Daniel VIIL 



BY 

JOHN KOLVOORD 

AND 

MOSES E. KELLOGG 



' ' And the vision of the evening and the morning which 
was told in true." —Daniel viii. 26. 



BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN 






The 


VISION 


OF THE " 


EVENING x N H ° MORNING 


A Study of the Prophecy of 


" Daniel VIII. 


BY 


JOHN KOLVOORD 


AND 


MOSES E. KELLOGG 


" And the vision of the evening and the morning which 


was told is true."— Daniel viii. 26. 


BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN 



^ic 









PREFACE 

About three years ago, the two authors of this 
treatise meeting one day, one asked the other this 
question : "What are you studying now ? " The reply 
was, "I am studying the subject of the Sanctuary/' 
The first speaker responded, "So am I." By further 
conversation it was found that both were in doubt as 
to the correctness of their former views upon this 
subject, and that both were seeking for the correct 
solution of the prophecy of Daniel VIII. 

As one of these persons lived in the country and 
the other in town, and as the one who lived in town 
was away from home much of the time, they could not 
collaborate in their studies, but carried them on inde- 
pendently, though they sometimes met and compared 
ideas and conclusions. Finally each wrote out what 
seemed to him to be the truth in the matter. What 
they wrote composes the two parts of this treatise. It 
has been thought best to publish them in one, that in 
the mouth of two witnesses, at least, every word may 
be established. 

The reader will notice that while there is a re- 
markable agreement in the views of the two authors, 
there is a striking dissimilarity in the way the subject 
is discussed. The matter presented by one is as an es- 
say without much reference to the hopes built upon this 
prophecy by the Adventists ; the other writes with spe- 
cial emphasis as to what Adventists believe, and in an 



4 Preface. 

apologetic tone, of their mistakes. One devotes much 
space to the specifications of the prophecy relating to 
the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, the other to 
the pollution and subsequent cleansing of the sanc- 
tuary. Each part, therefore, seems to supplement the 
other, which, it is believed, makes the whole more 
interesting and will stimulate a thorough study of the 
same. 

The ideas here set forth will also explain in part 
the reason of my silence for some years. When I 
became thoroughly convinced that as one of its cen- 
tral doctrines the Seventh-day Adventist church w 7 as 
holding to and striving to perpetuate a gross error, 
I could no longer be a party to it, much less be en- 
thusiastic in support of the church. I was forced by 
the inexorable logic of facts to dissent; and this trea- 
tise is submitted as evidence that I have good grounds 
for so doing. Error leads only to bondage ; the truth 
alone makes one free. And we should not hesitate 
to accept truth, even if in so doing we are compelled 
to acknowledge that we have been in error. I firmly 
believe that herein is presented the absolute truth 
upon the subject considered, and the truth needs no 
apology, though it does sometimes, as in this case, 
need a defender. 

And now "with charity toward all, and malice 
toward none, with firmness in the right as God gives 
me to see the right/ 7 I lay these evidences of the truth 
of my contention in this matter upon the heart and 
conscience of all to whom this work may come, pray- 



Preface. 5 

ing ever that the Holy Spirit who is to guide us into 
all truth, may direct the reader in his study and de- 
cisions upon this important subject. 

Oct. 1, 1907. . Moses E. Kellogg. 

348 Van Buren St., 
Battle Creek, Mich. 



This treatise will be sent postpaid to any person in the 
United States or Canada upon receipt of 25 cents. 



THE PROPHECY OF DANIEL VIII 

BY JOHN KOLVOORD 
PART I 

Every true prediction eventually becomes a his- 
toric reality. This statement is self-evident to all who 
know that prophecy differs from history only in point 
of time : the one is written before, while the other is 
written after, the events have transpired. For this 
reason predicted history, taken in its strictest sense, 
is not a counterpart of prophecy in its being similar 
to it as a whole, or in bearing resemblance in some 
important respect. The relation between them does 
not consist in correspondence or similarity, but in 
actual identity as to outlines and particular details. 
Such history is as much a duplicate of prophecy as a 
carbon copy corresponds with its typewritten upper 
sheet. To all intents and purposes, this duplicate 
corresponds with the original, contains the same pro- 
visions, and is governed by the same restrictions. 

The Messiah delineated by the ancient seers an- 
swers exactly to the historical Saviour of apostolic 
times. Of this proof Jesus availed himself to con- 
vince his despairing disciples. The record says, "And 
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them in all the scriptures the things 
concerning himself/' Reviewing the various inci- 
dents of his history, he pointed out how each had 
been minutely foretold. The disciples accordingly, 



8 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

from that time on, saw the identity between the 
minutest details of his life in prophecy and in history. 
Thenceforward they read the fulfilment of events in 
" that which was spoken by the prophets." And for 
this reason the gospels abound in such utterances as 
these : "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken ;" 
"and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith;" "these 
things were done that the scripture should be ful- 
filled ;" "and again another scripture saith," etc. 

Agreeable to this principle, all the data, taken 
collectively, constitute the full outline of a particular 
prophecy. Perhaps a few of its delineations may very 
appropriately be applied to other events, just as a 
few random strokes may serve as the general outline 
for many a portrait. But when the artist develops 
his sketch by bringing out the peculiar and charac- 
teristic delineations, it is only then that the sketch 
assumes individuality. And even at that stage a stroke 
added here, or a very little change made there, trans- 
forms the subject into an entirely different person- 
ality. 

These principles should be borne in mind when 
attempting to explain prophecy; for a failure to com- 
ply with this requirement results inevitably in mis- 
application. Absolute identification should be sought. 
And having succeeded in proving the identity of the 
outlines of a given prophecy with the salient features 
of a historic personality or event, we shall then have 
found both the original and its duplicate. The one 
will fit the other as exactly as a casting fits its mold. 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 9 

Having briefly outlined the principle on which we 
planned to conduct the investigation, we commence, 
without further preliminaries, to test the correctness 
of an accepted interpretation of the sanctuary and the 
2,300 days of Dan. 8:13, 14. This study being, in 
the first place, a test of the quite widely accepted ex- 
planation, will have to be prosecuted along two lines — 
the one negatively and the other constructively. We 
do not intend to take away without giving something 
better instead. To this the unbiased reader, who de- 
sires truth above anything else^ can have no objec- 
tion. Error may be fondled, may be regarded invul- 
nerable to sound criticism, yea, may be defended to 
the last ditch, yet truth, though crushed to earth, will 
rise again ; " the eternal years of God are hers." 

In the symbolic representation of Daniel 8, a ram 
and a he-goat served respectively as representatives 
of the Medo-Persian and the Grecian empires. Now, 
note well that each animal symbolizes a government, 
but the horns convey different ideas. Those of the 
ram suggest that the government is a double power 
composed of the union of two kingdoms. Yet the 
two form but one empire represented by the ram. 
Grecia, another empire, has a notable horn, and that 
horn also does not represent the empire, but Greece's 
first king only ; for the shaggy goat itself was ex- 
plained to represent the " king" (kingdom) of Greece. 
Verse 21. 

Similarly in Daniel 7, the nondescript beast is pic- 
tured as having ten horns. The animal is interpreted 



10 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

to be a portrait of the third universal kingdom, after 
Babylon. In verse 24, " the ten horns out of this 
kingdom " are said to be " ten kings that shall arise." 
Hence, when Rome was finally divided, the result- 
ing kingdoms perpetuating Roman civilization, lan- 
guage, and laws, were Roman still. And the little 
horn, coming up among the ten, though diverse from 
them all, is Romish notwithstanding. All this fol- 
lows logically, because the beast wearing the horns 
represents Rome. 

The principal question to be settled first is the 
meaning of the animal. The horns are secondary 
symbols, representing either the supreme authority of 
a single monarch, or the kingdoms resulting from the 
division of the empire. In the case under considera- 
tion, the " kingdom " of Greece had a notable horn, 
which was plainly explained to represent a single 
king. After his death, the unity of the monarchy 
was broken into four divisions, as is represented by 
the four horns. And each of those four horns rep- 
resents a kingdom over which a dynasty, or a suc- 
cession of kings, bore rule. Their political nationality 
is determined by the animal bearing the horns. Re- 
lying upon the soundness of this premise, we predi- 
cate that the horns of a ram are ram's horns ; the 
horns of a goat are goat's horns; and the horns of a 
Roman beast are Roman horns. In the symbolism of 
Scripture we do not find the anomaly of a Roman horn 
growing out of a goat's horn. Yet we are asked to 
believe that the little horn, which sprang out of one 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 11 

of the horns of the he-goat, was then Roman power! 

Illustrating the basic principles enunciated, the fol- 
lowing corroborative testimony, we think, will settle 
the question conclusively. In the preceding chapter, 
the Grecian empire is not represented by a goat with 
four horns, but by a winged leopard having four 
heads. Beginning at this point, the symbols represent 
an absolute identity: the horns and the heads denote 
the four divisions of the empire. By parity of rea- 
soning, let us now assume that something grew out 
of one of those heads, just as the little horn came 
forth out of one of the horns. Would not the bone, 
flesh, or horn growing out of the head be regarded 
as a part of the animal, inasmuch as the leopard's 
blood caused it to grow? Would any sane person, 
seeing such an outgrowth, think of calling it the be- 
ginning of another animal? Could the thing grow, 
if severed from the head? Or could the thing live 
and grow after the leopard died? These questions 
are easily answered; likewise as regards the little 
horn. It could grow only so long as the goat's blood 
furnished the increment. The goat could fight with 
it, but it could not fight against the goat and overcome 
him. If it was a formidable horn, it was that on ac- 
count of the strength of the goat pushing it. To be- 
lieve the opposite is to believe a palpable absurdity. 
Yet such an absurdity is advocated by those who 
teach that the horn (Rome) conquered the beast 
(Greece) out of w r hich it came forth. 

Neither was the Roman empire a continuation of 



12 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

the universal dominion established by Alexander, 
which it would have been had it sprung from the 
Macedonian horn. Rome existed, as an independent 
power, long before the Grecian empire wielded its 
sway over the Orient. There is just as good reason 
for claiming that the Grecian dominion came in 
through Medo-Persia, and the Medo-Persian through 
Babylon, as there is for Rome coming in through the 
Macedonian horn. When Rome had subjugated the 
Macedonian kingdom, the he-goat had one horn broken 
off, but he still lived and fought with three horns. 
And if Rome was a part of that lost horn, then the 
empire lost both the horn and the little one coming- 
out of it. Logically then, Greece rid herself of Rome 
when she lost Macedonia. Thus their argument con- 
tradicts itself. 

In each panoramic representation of prophecy, the 
vanishing governments are succeeded either by dif- 
ferent animals of by different metals. We challenge 
a single instance where a distinctly foreign power is 
represented as issuing out of any part of a vanquished 
beast. It is, therefore, anomalous and absurd to at- 
tribute to Rome what distinctly belongs to one of the 
horns of Greece. 

The theory assailed also runs counter to the plain 
specifications enumerated in the prophecy. There is 
no intimation of one of the four horns being des- 
troyed by the little horn. According to a positive 
declaration of the one who was commissioned to ex- 
plain the prophecy, the four horns represented the 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 13 

four kingdoms into which the Greek dominion would 
be divided. Verse 22. The nation continues to be the 
goat nation, for from this time on a four-horned goat 
serves as symbol. While the goat had one horn, the 
executive authority was vested in one king. This idea 
is plainly expressed in these words: "And the great 
horn that is between his eyes is the first king." Verse 
21. After its division, the empire was ruled by four 
contemporaneous kings. And as the kingdoms out- 
lasted the lives of several sovereigns, a succession of 
kings ruled over each. Accordingly, " in the latter 
time of their kingdom " — i. e., in the latter part of the 
rule of those four contemporaneous dynasties — ''a 
king . . . shall stand up." Verse 23. The little horn 
was thus plainly explained to represent a king. The 
horn out of which it sprang typified the whole line 
of kings, and also, by metonomy, their kingdom. 
The little one which was seen issuing from the large 
horn was one of the kings composing the dynasty. 
Differently expressed, the horn together w 7 ith its out- 
growth constituted the kingdom, or line of kings. 
The little horn denoted one king of that line, .the rest 
of the dynasty being represented by the large horn. 
Horn and little horn were a unit, and not two horns. 
This horn had a process, prong, or branch. 

As everything depends upon the soundness of the 
premise, let us make assurance doubly sure by look- 
ing at this matter from still another point of view. 
The eleventh of Daniel contains a fuller and plainer 
explanation of the symbols of chapter eight. After 



14 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

Cyrus, thus said the angel, four more kings would 
rule over Medo-Persia. The last and richest king 
would " stir up all against the realm of Grecia," but 
be beaten by a mighty king. The kingdom of this 
mighty conqueror was next to be broken, and divided 
"toward the four winds of heaven." The government, 
it is also explicitly stated, should not descend to his 
posterity, seeing it was to be given " to others than 
those." This interpretation is exactly in harmony 
with the visions of the four heads and the four horns. 
Next notice that the subsequent part of the explana- 
tion drops two of the four kingdoms and proceeds to 
tell very minutely what was done by "the king of the 
north " and " the king of the south." The word king, 
as here used, covers the whole line of Ptolemies on 
the one hand, and the Seleucid dynasty on the other. 
But the Macedonian kingdom is not even mentioned, 
which omission is a significant fact, if it be true that 
the little horn made its entrance through Macedonia, 
as has been assumed, and that the Macedonian horn, 
therefore, constitutes the pivotal idea of the prophecy. 
Following this line of investigation a little farther, 
we find exactly the same things imputed to one of the 
kings of the north which w T ere charged against the 
little horn. The king who is called " a vile person," 
in verse 21, should come in contact with the people 
of God, pollute the sanctuary, take away the daily 
sacrifice, and place the abomination of desolation. 
These specifications agree wholly with those of the 
little horn. From which facts no other conclusion 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 15 

can legitimately be drawn than that the little horn 
constituted a part of the Seleucid horn of the goat. 
As was affirmed before, it also proves the unity of 
the horn and the little horn, for the "vile" king comes 
in the regular succession of the Seleucid kings. He 
was in no other sense, than in his special deeds, dis- 
tinct from them. He made himself conspicuous by 
his attitude and his actions, wherefore he is repre- 
sented as an awry-grown part of the horn. In no 
better way could the attention be drawn to his out- 
rageous deeds. 

Having proved that the little horn could not pos- 
sibly come in by way of the Macedonian horn, the in- 
consistency of the theory can now be further laid bare 
by instituting an inquiry into what it was to do ; when 
that would be done, how much time was allotted to 
the performance, besides who and what suffered in 
consequence. There is as gross a misapprehension, 
or rather misapplication, of these prophetic specifica- 
tions as there is of the fundamental meaning of the 
symbol. The erroneous interpretation of the symbol 
led to a forced and unnatural explanation of what 
was done. Let us apply the specifications to Rome, 
and note the incompatibilities. 

The little horn was to tread the sanctuary and the 
host under foot, during a period of 2,300 days. As- 
suming the days to represent as many years, the end 
of the time of oppression can definitely be determined 
by a simple arithmetical calculation ; for, according 
to the specification of the prophecy, the little horn 



16 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

does it without assistance. Being therefore restricted 
by this consideration, the period of 2,300 years can 
not begin prior to the year 161 b. c v when Rome first 
came in contact with the people of God. Hence the 
2,300 years, though crowded back to their utmost 
limit (161 b. a), will not expire before the year 2139 
a. d. And that spoils the theory. 

Furthermore, the little horn was to tread under 
foot both the host and the sanctuary. Harmonious 
with this specification, it will be impossible to prove 
that Rome did, and yet will, oppress either Jews or 
Christians until the allotted time is full. And as re- 
gards the treading under foot of a sanctuary that does 
not now exist, this problem is beyond comprehension. 
But an expedient to circumvent this embarrassing 
difficulty has been sagaciously invented. Elder J. N. 
Andrews stated the matter thus : " The fact is plain, 
then, that of the vision of 2,300 days concerning the 
sanctuary, only 490 pertained to the earthly sanctuary ; 
and also that the iniquity of the Jewish people would 
in that period be so far filled up that God would leave 
them, and the city and the sanctuary would soon after 
be destroyed, and never be rebuilt, but left in ruins 
till the consummation. ... It is therefore an estab- 
lished fact that the worldly sanctuary of the first cove- 
nant, and the heavenly sanctuary of the new cove- 
nant, are both embraced in the vision of the 2,300 
days." — The Sanctuary and the Twenty-Three Hun- 
dred Days. 

In accordance with the aforesaid view, the tread- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 17 

ing under foot of the earthly sanctuary began in the 
year 457 b. c. ; but it is not explained how the little 
horn could begin its work 296 years before it even 
came in contact with the Jews. Or if we are asked 
to believe that the Persians commenced the atrocious 
deed in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, then we 
inquire how the theory can be harmonized with the 
following decree of Darius, and endorsed by Arta- 
xerxes, in which it is said, " And the God that caused 
his name to dwell there destroy all kings and people, 
that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this 
house of God which is at Jerusalem." As a matter 
of fact, neither Persians, Grecians, nor Romans caused 
Israel very much molestation in their belief or wor- 
ship. Neither did any of them bear a grudge in par- 
ticular against the sanctuary. This point will become 
plainer as we proceed. 

Notwithstanding, let the assumption be admitted 
that the sanctuary was defiled for 490 years; on the 
ground of what specification in the prophecy, then, 
are we permitted to conclude, that the treading under 
foot applies to two sanctuaries, the one earthly and 
the other heavenly? And since the heavenly one was 
not trodden literally under foot, how can one be an- 
swered who insists that the Jewish sanctuary was 
likewise trodden figuratively under foot by the gen- 
tiles? Moreover, since the figurative treading under 
foot applies to both the people and the sanctuary, 
prove it, who can, that the people suffered hardship. 
Inflict a figurative punishment upon the people — "but 



18 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

that would hurt nobody ! " Exactly. Neither can a 
figurative treading under foot affect an earthly or a 
heavenly sanctuary. Either is desecrated only by 
actual contact, or by having sins transferred to it. 
But transferring sins is not treading the sanctuary 
under foot. If it were, then the 2,300 days would 
date back to the days of wandering in the wilderness. 
The sanctuary alluded to in the prophecy had to be 
cleansed from being defiled by something called an 
abomination, as well as from having been trampled 
under foot. Thus it is plainly specified. 

Taking it again on the believed premise, another 
important consideration is overlooked. During the 
490 years Israel's sanctuary was cleansed annually, 
with but three exceptions. As ceremonial perform- 
ances, those sanctifications were as really effective as 
any others made previous to the period of seventy 
weeks. By those acts the sanctuary was hallowed 
from uncleanness (Leviticus 16). Whoever reflects 
upon this will perceive, that neither real nor fancied 
defilement from any source can be imputed to a sanc- 
tuary which has been cleansed. To claim sanctifica- 
tion for a sanctuary still reeking with defilement from 
any other than Israel's sins, is as contradictory as it 
is inane. Up to the last atonement preceding the 
rending of the vail, the sanctuary stood cleansed from 
any and all uncleanness. 

We quote again : " The fact is plain, then, that 
of the vision of 2,300 days concerning the sanctuary, 
only 490 pertained to the earthly sanctuary/' — /. N. 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 19 

Andrews. The fact is still plainer that the temple, 
being annually purified, no further uncleanness can 
be imputed to it. Hence the argument does not ap- 
ply to 490 of the 2,300 years. 

The theory respecting the cleansing of the heav- 
enly sanctuary is equally inconsistent with the re- 
quirements of the type. For, while the high priest 
performed the cleansing work, no one was permitted 
to enter the temple. Lev. 16: 17. During that interim 
there were no sacrifices for sins. Accordingly, the 
more satisfactorily it is proved to one's liking that 
the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary began in 
1844, so much the more positively the end of proba- 
tion is fixed on that date. If Christ then began his 
change of ministration from priest to highpriest, con- 
fession of sins has ever since been in vain. But the 
thousands who have received forgiveness during the 
last sixty years, constitute as many separate proofs 
that the cleansing work has not yet begun. The time 
is still future when no one will be able, like in the 
type, to enter the heavenly sanctuary, for that will 
be after the seven angels have received the vials full 
of God's wrath. Rev. 15:5-8. Hence, 1844 fails to 
connect with the time of cleansing. It is separated 
by an ever-widening chasm of already more than six 
decades. Prophecy is not fulfilled so discrepancy. If 
events do not synchronize exactly with the chronology 
of the prophecy, there is assuredly no connection be- 
tween them. 

Furthermore, there are alleged to be " two oppos- 



20 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

ing sanctuaries in Daniel 8. To the careful reader 
this fact will at once appear. They are as follows : 
First, the sanctuary of the daily desolation. Second, 
the sanctuary which the daily and the transgression 
of desolation were to tread under foot. The one is 
the sanctuary of Satan; the other is the sanctuary of 
the Lord of hosts." — Andrews. Two opposing sanc- 
tuaries plus the Jewish one make three sanctuaries. 
All of them are embodied in a single word ! That 
word sanctuary is surely pregnant with meaning, for 
it is made to cover every degree of worship in heaven 
above, the earth below, even down to the homage 
paid to Satan. Whoever discovered those three in 
one must have been a great discoverer of hidden 
things. 

An elaborate argument is also built upon the lit- 
eral meaning of the word determined. " Seventy 
weeks," so says the original, "are cut off upon thy peo- 
ple." Very well, take the expression just as it reads. 
The period was cut off from something. From what? 
" From the 2,300 days," it is said. The conclusion 
is gratuitous. The period can just as consistently 
be cut off from all subsequent time, as from any lim- 
ited portion. In Job 14: 5 man's days are said to be 
" determined." Can this expression have no sensi- 
ble meaning, unless we fancy them as being cut out 
of some definitely limited period in the sight of God, 
who sees the end from the beginning, man lives an 
allotted length of time ; his days are determined, or 
carved out, without reference to any other event. In 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 21 

the same sense God allotted 490 years, at whose ex- 
piration Israel's peculiar relationship came to an end. 

In the next place much reliance is placed upon 
the allegation that the accepted translation of Dan. 
8:13 is incorrect. In "Thoughts on Daniel" it is 
said, " We have proof in verse 13 that sacrifice is the 
wrong word to be supplied in connection with the 
word daily. . . . The idea of sacrifice does not at- 
tach to the word at all. . . . Literally, it may be 
rendered, ' How long the vision [concerning] the con- 
tinuance and the transgression of desolation ?' " 

Had the author of the aforesaid criticism been on 
less than on the most distant of "speaking terms" with 
the Hebrew language, he would undoubtedly have 
amended his emendation of the text. The writer of 
this knows barely enough of that language to cover 
the simplest rudiments, nevertheless he can, by the 
help of a lexicon, trace the connection between "con- 
tinual" and "sacrifice." Therefore, to disprove the 
assertion that the idea of sacrifice does not at all at- 
tach to the word continual, we shall let a Hebrew 
lexicon decide. Turning to the word tameed, we copy 
the following definition in full: "Continuance, olah 
tameed burnt-offering of continuance, i. e., continual 
or daily burnt-offering, Num. 28 : 6, so also in appo- 
sition olath tameed, Num. 28 : 3 ; but also without 
olath, e. g., hottameed wehaysiroo and they shall put 
away the constant offering, Dan. 11:31. (2) as adv. 
continually, ever." — Davies* Hebrew and Chaldee 
Lexicon. 



22 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

At the institution of the morning and the evening 
sacrifice, Moses was instructed to offer "two lambs 
of the first year day by day continually" Ex. 29: 
38-46. For this reason it is not far-fetched to call 
the daily sacrifice the offering of continuance. The 
Jews of later times called the daily sacrifice simply 
the "daily,' 5 just as we are accustomed to such ex- 
pressions as reading "dailies" when riding on a "daily." 
Such expressions are linguistic peculiarities. And 
Bevan, when writing on the linguistic character of 
Daniel, cites the very point under consideration, as an 
illustration. He says: "Hottameed, Dan. 8:11, 13; 
11:31; 12:11. Other Biblical writers call the daily 
burnt-offering olah hottameed (Num. 28: lOff, Neh. 
10: 34), but in Daniel the simple hottameed is used in- 
stead — so also in the Mishna (e. g., Ta'aneeth iv. 6)." 
The Mishna, comprising the "Oral Law," forms a kind 
of complement to the written law, which it explains 
and amplifies. This proves how the Jews understood 
the expression. In the light of such authorities, "the 
continuance and the transgression of desolation" is 
to be regarded as a veritable barbarism. It is mean- 
ingless and absurd. 

But, "the grand principle involved in the inter- 
pretation of the 2,300 days of Dan. 8 : 14 is, that the 
seventy weeks of Dan. 9 : 24 are the first 490 days of 
the 2,300, of the eighth chapter." The crucial test 
is, then, to be applied at this point. If the logic can 
be proved to be fallacious, the system, and with it the 
theory of the sanctuary, must fall. We shall conduct 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 23 

this. investigation first along the illogical lines of rea- 
soning, and afterwards disprove those premises by 
historical evidence. 

The aforementioned "grand principle" is based 
upon the hypothesis that the period of 2,300 days was 
not explained to Daniel, in chapter eight. The fail- 
ure can consist only in not naming its duration, its 
initial, or its terminal point. The subject under con- 
sideration is the taking away of the daily sacrifice, the 
casting down of the place of the sanctuary, and the 
treading under foot of sanctuary and host. In reply 
to the query, as worded in verse 13, and covering the 
time w 7 hen said specifications were to become events, 
the answer was given : " Unto two thousand and three 
hundred days." This is unequivocal ; there can be no 
mistaking the length of the period. And what should 
happen at its close? " Then shall the sanctuary be 
cleansed." The taking away of the daily sacrifice and 
the setting up of the abomination constitute, then, 
the beginning of the period. This is simple enough 
for an ordinary child to grasp. Time is not the item 
that could have perplexed Daniel. 

Chapters 10 and 11 are devoted to a plainer and 
more detailed explanation of the vision. According 
to verse 14, the angel said, "Now am I come to make 
thee understand what shall befall thy people in the 
latter days : for yet the vision is for many days." 
The Jews are here named "thy people." In chapter 
9 it is likewise said, " Seventy weeks are determined 
upon thy people." The vision, then, deals with what 



24 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

would befall Israel in the "latter days." This expres- 
sion, and also "the time of the end," does not mean 
the end of time. It is a prophetic phrase denoting 
the time of fulfilment. It is what the prophet sees 
at the horizon of his vision. Similarly, Jacob foretold 
what would happen to his posterity "in the last days" 
— events fulfilled in Palestine. Balaam said to Balak, 
"And now, behold, I go unto my people : come there- 
fore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall 
do to thy people in the latter days." Num. 24 : 14. 
This, also, has happened long ago. 

Chapter 10 is introductory. In chapter 11 the ex- 
planation given is so complete an expansion of chap- 
ter 8 that one needs but insert the names of men and 
countries to make the prophecy read like history. 
That explanation was needed to make the vision fully 
intelligible. Those who lived in the days of its ac- 
complishment could not mistake the meaning. Yet, 
notwithstanding the extreme minuteness in details, 
nothing was said about the days, simply because that 
part of the vision is self-explanatory. 

Whether there is a connection between Daniel 8 
and 9, we shall, for argument's sake, neither admit nor 
deny. We present what seems to us as a more rea- 
sonable view. The preceding vision, or visions, taken 
in connection with Jeremiah's prophecies, which Dan- 
iel had just been studying, may have given him wrong 
views respecting Israel's future. Daniel prayed ear- 
nestly for what he hoped and expected to see estab- 
lished after the captivity was ended. In this connec- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 25 

tion Gabriel gave him plainly to understand, that Is- 
rael's expected salvation would not come at the close 
of the captivity. After that another seventy weeks of 
years had to elapse before Messiah would come. 
Then the sanctuary and its service, in which he was 
so exceedingly much interested, would have served 
their purpose in the middle of the seventieth week. 
Also, after that the city would again be destroyed. 
In thought and scope, chapter 9 differs widely from 
the preceding vision. 

" At the beginning of thy supplications/' said Ga- 
briel, "the commandment came forth, and I am come 
to show thee ; for thou art greatly beloved : therefore 
understand the matter, and consider the vision." Dan. 
9: 23. As soon as Daniel began to unburden his mind, 
the command was given to give him skill and under- 
standing. If this is an allusion to the vision of chapter 
8, then Gabriel did not succeed in giving him skill and 
understanding, for he explained that vision very mi- 
nutely at a subsequent time, as has been pointed out. 
But if the vision alluded to in chapter 9, be limited to 
the matter which was revealed at that particular time, 
then the difficulty vanishes. 

A careful comparison reveals, furthermore, that 
the two periods are opposites. The 2,300 days are a 
period of desolation, of oppression, and of defiling 
the sanctuary. The 490 years begin with restoration, 
with a rebuilding of city and temple, and a resump- 
tion of the sanctuary service. The people were not 
oppressed, but found favor in the sight of heathen 



26 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

monarchs. By decree, the privilege was granted them 
of drawing from the provincial treasury of Syria, to 
the amount of whatever was required for the service 
of the temple, to the end that the priests might daily 
pray for the health of the king and the prosperity of 
his empire. The seventy weeks began in a manner 
the very opposite of the 2,300 days. Hence they did 
not begin simultaneously. 

The next noteworthy discrepancy is caused by 
not discriminating between the two abominations. 
The "transgression of desolation/' spoken of in chap- 
ter 8, lasted the full period of 2,300 days, at the end 
of which the sanctuary was cleansed. The "over- 
spreading of abominations/' mentioned in chapter 9, 
came at the destruction of Jerusalem. By it both 
city and temple were destroyed, making a subsequent 
cleansing of the temple impossible. It is, therefore, 
an incontrovertible fact that the period of 2,300 days, 
at the end of which the temple was cleansed, falls 
prior to the destruction of Jerusalem. 

To the intent that the untenableness of the theory 
may become still more apparent, we shall next fur- 
nish proof contradicting the assumption that the 
''transgression of desolation" denotes the papacy. The 
matter referred to, under the appellation of "abomi- 
nation of desolation/' or "transgression of desolation," 
wherever the expression occurs in the Bible, does not 
denote people or individuals, but things. For, when 
Jesus alluded to the abomination of desolation, in con- 
nection with Jerusalem's overthrow, he surely did 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 27 

not mean that the Christians should flee as soon as 
they saw the papacy established in the city. Neither 
is the expression a synonym for the Roman army, 
although Luke 21 : 20 seems to favor such a view. 
The sign mentioned by Luke applies more particu- 
larly to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The ones who 
were then in the midst of it, were warned to depart, 
and those in the country were cautioned not to enter 
the city. Matthew and Mark mention the abomina- 
tion, and both give its meaning only as applicable to all 
Judea: "then let them that be in Judea flee to the 
mountains. " 

Xow notice more particularly that it is a thing. 
4 ' And they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, 
and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and shall place 
the abomination that maketh desolate." Dan. 11:31. 
It is something placed : whoever took the sacrifice 
away, placed the abomination. Fausset defines it: 
" The idol of the desolator," or "the idol that causeth 
desolation." In " The Jewish Encyclopedia " the fol- 
lowing definition is given : " In both Biblical and 
rabbinical Hebrew abomination is a familiar term for 
an idol (1 Kings 11:5; 2 Kings 23:13) . . . and 
therefore may well have the same application in Dan- 
iel, which should accordingly be rendered, in agree- 
ment with Ezra 9:3, 4, ' motionless abomination/ or, 
also, ' appalling abomination ! ' " And in James Has- 
tings' "Dictionary of the Bible" the reader will find : 
" It is remarkable that in 1 Mac. 1 : 54 the idol-altar 



28 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

is called by exactly the same name that is used in the 
book of Daniel." 

The idolatrous, image-crowned Roman standards 
were symbols of heathen deities. To them the sol- 
diers paid homage, and offered sacrifices in acknowl- 
edgment of victories obtained. When the legions, 
bearing those idol-standards, were seen, it was a 
warning to the inhabitants of Judea to flee to the 
mountains. All Jewry being familiar with the mean- 
ing of Christ's quotation, the Christians must have 
recognized in it, at once, an allusion to idols, or to 
idol-worship. The force of this statement will be bet- 
ter felt, if it be borne in mind that the Jews had an- 
nually, for nearly two hundred years, celebrated the 
Feast of Dedication (John 10:20), in commemora- 
tion of the cleansing of the second temple and altar, 
after they had been profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes. 
Consequently, the allusion to the abomination of des- 
olation, spoken of in Daniel, suggested to them the 
idea of idols and idolatry. And harmonious with this 
is the marginal reading of Daniel 9 : 27, in the A. V., 
which says, "And upon the battlements shall be the 
idols of the desolator." Therefore, when the inhab- 
itants of Judea saw idols brought within their bor- 
ders, it was a sign of the impending desolation. 

Nor can the 2,300 days be made to begin at the end 
of the 490 years, for a few years thereafter the sanc- 
tuary was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Then the 
descendants of Israel were scattered to every point of 
the compass. In every particular, in short, the two 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 29 

periods, laid side by side, are a mismatch. There is 
a misfit, because the prophecies of Daniel 8 and 9 per- 
tain to wholly different events. 

The explanation is also wrong as regards the par- 
ticipating agents. If the little horn represents Rome 
(and it certainly could not harm God's people before 
it came in contact with them, in 161 b. a), then, ac- 
cording to the logic of the premise, the 2,300 days 
began to be fulfilled under people who were not Ro- 
mans. For at the commencement of the weeks of 
years, — about three centuries before the Romans ap- 
peared upon the stage of action, — the Medes and Per- 
sians held supremacy over the Israelites. After them 
the Greeks held dominion, until they in turn were 
vanquished by the Romans. The whole theory of the 
periods beginning at the same starting point is a fail- 
ure in every particular. 

Here we call a halt. We shall stop chasing the 
fanciful. Not because there are no more glaring in- 
consistencies to be pointed out, but because those al- 
ready mentioned must appeal strongly to thinking 
minds, and have awakened a longing for a more ra- 
tional explanation of the subject. And let the reader 
be judge whether the following interpretation is not 
simpler, plainer, and exactly in harmony with events 
as foreshadowed by the outline of prophecy. 



30 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

PART II 

In the symbolism of chapter eight, the two con- 
tending governments are represented by the appro- 
priate figures of a ram and a he-goat. There lies a 
significant meaning in this representation. Instead 
of a diadem, the kings of Persia wore a jeweled ram's 
head of gold, such as are seen on the pillars at Per- 
sepolis. Also, the Hebrew for ram springs from the 
same root as Elam, or Persia {Newton). And in 
Grecian mythology Ceranus, Macedonia's first king, 
is said to have been advised by an oracle to follow a 
flock of goats to where they stopped. They led him 
to Edessa, which he made the seat of his kingdom, 
and was called ^Egse, the goats' city. Its people were 
likewise called ^Egaedse, or goats' people. 

The prophetic symbols were, therefore, chosen 
with due appropriateness, and correctly applied to 
Medo-Persia and Grecia. Verses 20, 21. Proceed- 
ing with the last-named power, the conspicuous horn 
of the goat was interpreted to represent Greece's first 
king. Verse 21. Obviously not the first king of the 
line that ruled over the realm, but the first one of 
those who, after the overthrow of Persia, thencefor- 
ward bore sway, and ruled until the overturning of 
the four divisions of the Grecian empire. With pano- 
ramic vividness, we behold the last struggle waged 
in defense of Persia's supremacy. The victor who tri- 
umphed in that fierce conflict was Alexander the 
Great. He was, therefore, that great and notable 
horn. 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 31 

Briefly noticing but a few of the more salient fea- 
tures, we next stop to consider that the great horn 
was broken just when the goat had become strong. 
The empire was in full strength at Alexander's death. 
One would expect- to see that colossal strength per- 
petuated, but prophecy indicates a different turn of 
affairs. Four notable horns sprang up in the place 
of the one broken off. "Now that being broken, 
whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall 
stand up out of the nation, but not in his [the first 
king, Alexander's] power." Verse 22. This is the 
comment of him who was commanded to make Daniel 
understand the vision. The correctness of this in- 
terpretation, thus far, is firmly established. 

By the help of history, we find the names of Al- 
exander's four successors to be Seleucus, Cassander, 
Ptolemy, and Lysimachus. In this fourfold division 
the empire continued to exist, until it eventually was 
forced to bow before the scepter of Roman suprem- 
acy. With this brief allusion to the four Grecian 
kingdoms, they would be dismissed from further no- 
tice, had it not been distinctly foretold that "in the 
latter time of their kingdom," a "little horn" was to 
come forth. 

Now note carefully what is said. The beginning 
of their kingdom dates from the battle of Ipsus (301 
b. a). The history of the kingdom allotted to Cas- 
sander terminated in the year 146 b. c. The king- 
dom of the Seleucidse, comprising Syria, ended in the 
year 64 b. c. The rule over Egypt, under the Ptole- 



32 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

mies, lasted till 30 b. c. And the government over 
Thrace ended with the fall of the Macedonian king- 
dom, in 168 b. c. According to these dates, the four 
kingdoms continued to rule, as contemporary kings, 
from 301 b. c. until 168 b. c. "In the latter time of 
their kingdom" means, accordingly, at some time pre- 
vious to the end of their contemporaneous rule. The 
limitation set by the prophecy calls for the appearance 
of the little horn a short time prior to 168 b. c. 

Having located the time when, note next out of 
what that horn issues. " Out of one of them/' namely, 
one of the aforementioned horns. It is not an inde- 
pendent horn arising among the four existing horns, 
but it is an excrescence, a prong, if you please, some- 
thing growing out of one of the four horns. The 
animal, be it remembered, is the goat. At this stage 
of the history, that goat bears four horns, each of 
which represents a division of the Grecian empire. If 
the argument is incontrovertible thus far, it follows 
logically that the little horn, growing out of one of 
the existing horns, belongs to the goat also. There- 
fore the "king of fierce countenance and understand- 
ing dark sentences" was a Grecian king. 

The little horn can not possibly mean Rome ; this 
fact is nailed and clinched. Then to which one of the 
kings of Greece does the specification apply? Evi- 
dently to one of the Syrian division, for they bore 
rule over Israel. And who of them held the reins of 
government "in the latter part" of the contempora- 
neous reign of the four kings? Antiochus Epipha- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII . 33 

nes. This is not a latter-day discovery, for it was al- 
ready so understood a century and a half before 
Christ. The proof will be furnished. We say it un- 
hesitatingly that the prophecy applies to Antiochus, 
notwithstanding some one has said that "he does not 
fulfill the specifications in one single particular." This 
makes it an easy task to disprove the bald assertion, 
for the points of identity can very easily be estab- 
lished : 

1. The little horn sprang out of one of the Gre- 
cian horns. Antiochus was one of the Seleucid kings. 

2. He was to appear a little prior to 168 b. c. 
Antiochus Epiphanes reigned from 175 to 164 b. c. 

3. He is called a "little horn." Bevan says that 
the Hebrew expression for little is generally supposed 
to mean "from smallness," or "out of smallness," 
hence "little." Little is, therefore, used in a deriva- 
tive sense. Concurrent with this is the definition given 
in Davies' "Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon": "From 
smallness, i. e., prob. from small beginnings." Anti- 
ochus rose indeed "out of smallness." In his youth 
he was held a hostage in Rome. Can it be as easily 
proved that the Roman power was but a little horn 
when Macedon was conquered in the year 168 b. c. ? 
Rome had then already been rising steadily for almost 
six centuries, and for generations had coped success- 
fully with neighboring powers. At the time the 
Macedonian horn was broken off by the Roman le- 
gions, the power of Rome was much more potent, and 
her dominion far more extensive than that of Mace- 



34 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

don. Conformably, it would have been appropriate 
to say that a large horn arose out of a small one, pro- 
vided it would be proper to represent a victorious for- 
eign power by a horn, and not by another beast. 

4. He " waxed exceeding great." Because his 
greatness was not equal to any of the previous world- 
powers, therefore the specification is deemed to be in- 
applicable to Antiochus. In taking this view, a com- 
parison with other powers is assumed. But the proph- 
ecy does not limit us to such a comparison. Anti- 
ochus himself, compared with his erstwhile humble 
station in life, the subsequent investment with regal 
power, as well as by the thereafter successfully waged 
campaigns, became exceedingly great. This is in 
agreement with the primary meaning of ''little": "out 
of smallness" he became exceedingly great. 

5. The next point of coincidence is the exact di- 
rection in which his conquests lay, viz., "toward the 
south and toward the east, and toward the pleasant 
land." He undertook four campaigns against Egypt, 
with greater success than had any of his predecessors. 
— Fausset. 1 Mac. 3:31, 37; 6:1. And Palestine, 
the pleasant land, suffered most terribly under his 
conquests. 1 Mac. 1:21. Rome, on the other hand, 
waxed great to the north, the south, the east, and the 
zvest. Its greatest strength lay in its western hordes. 
To it the application is not literal. 

6. "In the latter time of their [the four horns] 
kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the 
full." Verse 23. Hitzig and Von Lengerke render 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 35 

the clause thus : "When the sinners fill up their meas- 
ure." The sinners alluded to are undoubtedly the 
renegade Jews who were contemporaries with Anti- 
ochus. The following historical facts, gleaned from 
"Post-Biblical History of the Jews," will elucidate 
the text: 

"The Jews of that period were enchanted with the 
ease and freedom of the Grecian mode of life, and 
restive under many of the restraints and limitations 
of their own. Accordingly, they abandoned them- 
selves with all the frenzy of a new excitement, from 
which all restraint had been withdrawn, to the license 
which was offered to them. The exercises of the 
gymnasium seem to have taken hold of their minds 
with the force of a fascination. The priests neglected 
their service at the temple to be present at those spec- 
tacles. Some of the exercises were performed naked; 
and it is related that many of the Jewish competitors 
found means to obliterate the peculiar stamp of their 
nationality, in order that they might not be distin- 
guished from Greeks and other champions in the 
sports of the gymnasium. 

"A ferment of innovation in the minds- of the 
Judeans at that time was not unlike that which, some 
two thousand years later, agitated the continent of 
Europe after the spread of the French Revolution and 
its doctrines. A new and foreign standard of perfec- 
tion was set up : whatever was Greek was elegant, and 
beautiful, and desirable; whatever was not Greek, or 
opposed to its predominence, was superannuated, big- 



36 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

oted, contemptible. Even minds sincerely attached to 
Jewish faith and Jewish nationality did not altogether 
escape the contagion. Indeed, the desire to approxi- 
mate externally as much as possible to the usages of 
the Greek world, without renouncing, internally, the 
essentials of Judaism, produced a Judeo-Grecian lit- 
erature, which, in point of time, extended over nearly 
three centuries, and continued till the destruction of 
Jerusalem." 

To stem this tide of revok from God ; to bridle the 
passion for libertinism; to neutralize the ferment of 
innovation, so destructive to a form of religion which 
suffered no change; to reinstill a new love for the 
religion that is neither licentious nor profligate — in 
short, to restore allegiance to and confidence in the 
revealed religion of the Eternal One, the events of 
that time served an admirable purpose. A well-de- 
served punishment was inflicted, which would have 
extinguished the last spark of hope, had not the star 
of prophecy shone brightly in that dark hour. Then 
the predictions presented a sublime philosophy of his- 
tory. They teach that every experience of mankind, 
the rise and fall of nations as well as the misfortunes 
which befell the Jewish race, were not mere accidents, 
but all in accord with Jehovah's eternal and unchang- 
ing purpose. The proclamation that God is working 
in and through all history, that the right will ulti- 
mately triumph and faithful service be rewarded, be- 
came foundation-stones in the faith of later Judaism 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 37 

and Christianity. This fact will stand out in still 
bolder relief as we proceed. 

7. Another specification is : "And it waxed great, 
even to the host of heaven ; and it cast down some of 
the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped 
upon them/' Fortunately, we do not have to conjec- 
ture what the meaning of this highly figurative lan- 
guage is. In Gabriel's explanation we are told, "And 
he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and 
practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy 
people." 

Now, fancy that these words apply to Rome. 
During seven centuries of growth and extensive con- 
quests that power waxed great, even to the Jewish 
nation! And Rome cast some of that people and its 
illustrious ones to the ground, and stamped upon them ! 
Does not such an exegesis strike you as stating things 
more mildly than is warranted by the history of 
events? When Rome did chastise the Israelites, they 
were "led away captive into all nations." Luke 21 : 
24. Not some of them, but all, and every "star" in- 
cluded. That the words do, on the other hand, apply 
literally to Antiochus Epiphanes, that once disgraced, 
degraded Roman vassal, who rose to the eminence of 
overpowering Israel, thinking minds are forced to 
admit. 

8. According to another specification, Antiochus 
should "also stand up against the Prince of princes." 
In verse 1 1 the wording is : "Yea, he magnified him- 
self even to the prince of the host." Jehovah is Is- 



38 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

rael's prince ; he is also the Prince of princes. And 
this being a direct statement of prophecy, it may not 
be twisted into an indirect application. The question 
to be settled is, whether Rome, at any time^ did "stand 
up against," did magnify itself, even to the One who 
rules over the rulers of men. Do not bring in the 
story of the dragon now, for it wrought indirectly 
through Rome, and Rome became, in turn, indirectly 
culpable through the Jews. The proof demanded is, 
whether Rome ever did stand up directly against 
Jehovah in demanding the homage and obedience 
which belong to him alone. You will search history 
in vain to find an affirmative answer to the question. 
But in applying this to Antiochus, we find that it was 
his fixed purpose and dominant idea to introduce into 
his whole realm the worship of Zeus Olympius, with 
whom he identified himself, and through whose wor- 
ship he expected to receive divine adoration. 1 Mac. 
1 : 52. All other forms of worship were proscribed, 
and exterminated with a zeal equal to fanaticism. 
Accordingly, the worship of Jehovah was supplanted 
by an idolatrous one, in which Antiochus entered as a 
shareholder. 

He found little difficulty to introduce this idolatry 
in Jerusalem, on account of the aid which he received 
from the Helenizing party. The sinners having "filled 
up their measure/' as was explained under heading 5, 
fell readily in line with his behest. 1 Mac. 1 : 12. 
The extermination of the holy people, together with 
the extinction of the revealed religion and a theocracy 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 39 

on earth, looked like something inevitable. Up to 
the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews suffered noth- 
ing that can be compared with the cruelties inflicted 
by that insane king. All the previous powers to which 
Israel had been subject recognized its inalienable 
right to worship Jehovah. For instance, Nebuchad- 
nezzar (Dan. 4:31 — ), Darius the Mede (Dan. 6: 
27 — ), Cyrus (Ezra 1:2 — ), x\rtaxerxes Longimanus 
(Ezra 7:12 — ; Neh. 2:7 — ). Likewise did Alex- 
ander the Great. Josephus (Ant. XI, 8, 5), narrating 
the incidents of the meeting of Alexander and Israel's 
high priest, tells it as follows : "Jaddua met him at 
Gapha (Mizpeh) at a procession of priests and citi- 
zens in white. Alexander, at the sight of the linen- 
arrayed priests, and the high priest in blue and gold 
with the mitre and gold plate bearing Jehovah's name 
on his head, adored and embraced him ; and having 
been shown Daniel's prophecy concerning him, he 
sacrificed to God in the court of the temple, and 
granted the Jews liberty to live according to their own 
laws, and freedom from tribute in sabbatical years." 
The aim and purpose of the prophecy of Daniel 8 
was, therefore, to fortify the people of God against 
the wiles and attacks of their great foe, on the one 
hand, as well as to inspire hope when the enemy seemed 
to succeed in crushing everything. 

9. "And by him the daily sacrifice was taken 
away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down." 
Can this be applied to Rome? Let us listen to an- 
other prophecy, which unmistakably applies to Roman 



40 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

times. We allude to this: "And he shall confirm the 
covenant with many for one week: and in the midst 
of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the obla- 
tion to cease." Dan. 9 : 27. In the one the sacrifice 
was simply taken away, but restored after a certain 
number of days, as the record plainly states. In the 
other, under Roman rule, the sacrifices and oblations 
ceased. Ceased when? "In the midst of the week/ 1 
That locates it definitely at the death of Christ, who 
was to cause them to cease. After that they had no 
more significance or value than any heathen sacrifice. 
And in harmony with this idea is the omission of any 
allusion to the temple service in connection with the 
Roman abomination of desolation. The record does 
not credit Rome with doing what was already done 
full thirty years before. It says simply: "And the 
people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the 
city and the sanctuary." 

How perfectly the prophecy respecting the taking 
away of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the 
abomination of desolation applies to Antiochus Epiph- 
anes, can best be told in the following extract : "Hav- 
ing gained control of the center of Judaism [Jerusa- 
lem] the temple was dismantled and desecrated (Dan. 
11 : 31). With the blood of Jewish victims was min- 
gled that of unclean animals sacrificed in despite of 
the Jewish law. On the site of the great altar of 
Jehovah was set up, in December, 168 b. c, ' the abom- 
ination of desolation/ — an altar to Olympian Zeus. 
Ten days later, sacrifices were instituted upon it in 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIIL 41 

which all the remaining inhabitants in Jerusalem were 
obliged to participate. Within the sacred precincts 
were soon practiced all the immoral customs so often 
associated in that degenerate age w T ith a heathen 
shrine (1 Mac. 1:37, 54, 59; 2 Mac. 6:2-5). All 
sacrifice to Jehovah of course ceased. By royal de- 
cree, the observation of the Sabbath or of the sacred 
feasts and practising the rite of circumcision were 
absolutely forbidden under penalty of death. All cop- 
ies of the law were destroyed. Heathen altars and 
temples were erected throughout Judea, and every Jew 
was compelled in public to sacrifice to idols swine's 
flesh or that of some other unclean beast, and to 
present conclusive evidence that he had ceased to ob- 
serve the laws of his fathers (1 Mac. 1:47-49). On 
the occasion of the feast of Dyonesius, every one was 
obliged to participate, marching in procession crowned 
with wreaths of ivy." 

10. "And the place of his [the Prince of the 
host's] sanctuary was cast down." In describing the 
devastation caused by Appollonius, who had been sent 
against Jerusalem to give vent to Antiochus' exasper- 
ation because the Romans had forcibly dispossessed 
him of Egypt's crown, Rollin has given the following 
testimony: "The city was afterward plundered, and 
set fire to in several parts, after all the rich movables 
had been carried off. They demolished such parts of 
the houses as were still standing; and, with the ruins, 
built a strong fort on the top of one of the hills of the 
city of David, opposite to the temple, which it com- 



42 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

manded." And Taylor testifies : "When they [the 
Maccabees] came to Mount Zion, and beheld the dev- 
astation of the city and temple, they rent their clothes, 
and gave vent to their sorrow in loud lamentations.'' — 
Ancient History. 

11. "And the host was given over to it [the little 
horn] together with the continual burnt-offering 
through transgression." R. V. This agrees substan- 
tially with the marginal reading of the A. V. The 
historical events already quoted demonstrate the 
justification for inflicting punishment upon apostate 
Israel, who were bent upon following the Greek re- 
ligion and morals. But what sense is there in seeking 
the fulfilment of this specification in either pagan or 
papal Rome? Under the "pagan form" the sacrifice 
was not taken away on account of transgression, but 
because type met antitype. The sacrifices simply 
ceased. They would have ceased then, even if Israel 
had led a life ever so holy. And much more absurd 
is the application to the "papal form." Taken in this 
broader sense, the "host," or "holy people," can be 
applied to no others than to Christians. The proph- 
ecy is then forced to mean that the followers of Jesus 
Christ were given over to suffer for their transgres- 
sions. Let all who still believe the old view cease 
their talk about persecution and martyrdom and call 
it henceforth a righteous retribution ! " 

12. "And it cast down the truth to the ground." 
Not satisfied with interrupting the sacrificial service, 
he was bent upon exterminating the very knowledge 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 43 

of the true God. To this end, every copy of the law 
that could be found was fanatically destroyed. The 
observance of all sacred rites and institutions was 
strictly forbidden under penalty of death. It was a 
time of struggle for supremacy; the question at issue 
was whether Judaism was to be merged into the semi- 
civilized philosophy of Greece, which the masses of 
Israel had studied with so much assiduity, and which 
had acted so powerfully upon both the faith and the 
morals of the people. It was a time when faith in 
Jehovah's might over the world-power had to be re- 
stored. 

13. "And it practised and prospered." In the 
providence of God, he served as a corrector of apos- 
tate Israel. His insane career and extreme cruelties 
went unchecked, until he had served God's purpose. 
He prospered, until the time for cleansing the sanc- 
tuary arrived. 

14. He is also described as being "a king of fierce 
countenance." In one of Moses' prophecies (Deut. 
28: 50), God threatened to bring against Israel a na- 
tion of fierce countenance as punishment for disobedi- 
ence. The qualifying words used there being identi- 
cal with those of the subject under consideration, 
many strenuously assume that the two passages allude 
to the same thing. But the conclusion is a non sequi- 
tur. The proof is no stronger than the claim would 
be that two persons are but one individual because 
both are called fair of face. In Deuteronomy the ex- 
pression applies to a nation; in Daniel it serves to de- 



44 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

scribe one of the characteristics of a king. The time 
when that king should stand up is specifically given; 
namely, 'Tn the latter part of their kingdom." Any 
one who has read ancient history need but be remind- 
ed of the fact that the rule of Rome did not begin in 
the latter time of the four Grecian kingdoms. Be- 
sides, the Roman nation was not "broken without 
hands" as was the "king of fierce countenance." 
These diversities plainly prove non-identity. 

According to the rendering of Isaac Leeser (Jew- 
ish), he was "a king impudent of face, and under- 
standing deep schemes." "A king insolent and skilled 
in double-dealing," as translated by Bevan. He was 
devoid of customary respect and courtesy. And as 
regards double-dealing — artifice — craft — he was a 
master in the art. He expressed himself in words 
that disguised his secret designs ; his aim being only 
to perplex affairs for the attainment of his own ends. 
Read Rollin's account. 

Some urge that by the expression, "understanding 
dark sentences/' the Latin is meant, which was the 
language of the Romans, and it is assumed that the 
Jews did not understand Latin. Granting this point 
does not facilitate the application to the Jews, for it 
is the king who understands the dark sentences. On 
the ground of this specification no thinking person 
will contend that the king represents the Roman na- 
tion, for then the prophecy is forced to mean that the 
Latins understood Latin. Such an application is not 
critically deep or correct ; yet it has been published in 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 45 

all seriousness, because the identity of Deut. 28: 50 
and Dan. 8 : 23 was assumed. But facts would war- 
rant such an application to Antiochus, since he had 
served thirteen years as a hostage in Rome, the seat 
of culture and society, where Latin was spoken, and 
whence he came direct to institute his schemes for ob- 
taining possession of the Syrian throne. 

15. "And his power shall be mighty, but not by 
his own power." Released from vassalage through 
the intervention of his brother Seleucus, who gave his 
only son Demetrius in exchange for him, he started 
to return from Rome to Syria. When he had pro- 
ceeded as far as Athens, he was informed of the 
assassination of his brother. It was also reported to him 
that the usurper stood at the head of a very strong 
party, and that another one was forming in favor of 
Ptolemy. In this exigency he turned to Eumenes, 
king of Pergamus, and to Attalus his brother, who 
seated him on the throne. No proclamation, by pub- 
lic act, was issued, conferring on him the kingdom. 
He obtained it by artifice, flattering Eumenes and 
Attalus of Pergamus, and canvassing the Syrian 
people high and low, as he had seen candidates do at 
Rome. Livy 41, 20. He answered very correctly to 
the following prophetic description : "And in his 
[brother's] estate shall stand up a vile person, to 
whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: 
but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the king- 
dom by flatteries. " 

16. And lastly, "he shall be broken without hand." 



46 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

His horrible death, ascribed by the Maccabees to a 
special visitation of Divine punishment, will be sub- 
sequently related. Thus, every specification applies 
to Antiochus, without warping or friction. The un- 
warrantable assertion that "he does not fulfil the spe- 
cifications in one single particular/' is, therefore, re- 
manded with the recommendation that it be reconsid- 
ered and corrected. 

Under the ninth heading an account is given of 
how the sanctuary was polluted, and its service inter- 
rupted. The task now remains to prove how exactly 
these, too, met their fulfilment. The question asked, 
in verse 13 of the Masoretic text, has greatly puzzled 
the translators. The early copyists have evidently 
corrupted the reading. Besides the rendering in our 
version, the following is suggested by Von Lengerke: 
"For how long is the vision — the continual offering 
and the desolating iniquity — the treading down both 
of the sanctuary and host?" Hitzig translates it: 
"For how long is the vision of the daily sacrifice — to 
leave unchecked the horrible iniquity and to trample 
down sanctuary and host?" Bevan gives what he 
conjectures the Hebrew basis of the Septuagint may 
have been, and then risks the following guess: "For 
how long is the vision to be, while the daily sacrifice 
is taken away, and the iniquity set up — from the time 
when he shall tread down the sanctuary and the serv- 
ice ? " Whichever may be correct, or nearly so, Dan- 
iel had already learned that the daily sacrifice was to 
be interrupted; his curiosity was now naturally awa- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 47 

kened to know how long that period of desolation and 
the reign of abomination would last. 

The answer, according to the rendering of the A. 
V., is : "Unto two thousand and three hundred days ; 
then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. " The marginal 
reading gives " evenings and mornings " instead of 
" days." Bevan remarks that the phrase ereb boker 
"must be explained according to verse 26." This ex- 
planation must be correct, seeing it expresses the 
meaning given to it by Gabriel. Consequently, it is 
not a period of so many twenty-four hours, but equiv- 
alent to successive evenings and mornings. In Gene- 
sis 1, the evening and the morning — the two periods 
added — constitute one day. A similar coupling of 
words is found in Gen. 8 : 22, where it is stated that 
"seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum- 
mer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." 
In Behrmann's "Hand Kommentar zum Alt en Testa- 
ment 33 a similar instance of coupling of words is cited. 
He quotes the following from the poetry of Hilde- 
brand: "Sumaro enti wintro sehstic/ 3 i. e. y summers 
and winters sixty=thirty years. This view is en- 
dorsed by Ewald, Hitzig, Kuenen, Cornill, Bleek, 
Kayser, Delitsch, and others. 

Gabriel said, "And the vision of the evening and 
the morning which was told is true." In this expla- 
nation, in which the symbols and the metaphors of 
the prophecy are dropped, the expression has not 
been changed to "day." There seems to be an express 
design in using the word day, namely, to prevent its 



48 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

being used in a symbolic sense. If a day were really 
in the mind of the speaker, the word yom (day) would 
naturally have suggested itself first of all. Since it 
is a question respecting the continued suspension of 
the daily sacrifice, the words refer to the evening and 
the morning oblations. For this reason, the period, 
expressed in days, amounts to one-half as many days 
as there are evenings and mornings. 

The next question affects the correctness of the 
number 2,300. In "The Sanctuary and the Twenty- 
three Hundred Days," by U. Smith, the following 
quotation is cited: "There is no number in the Bible 
whose genuineness is better ascertained than that of 
the 2,300 days. It is found in all the printed Hebrew 
editions, in all the MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi's 
collations, and in all the ancient versions, except the 
Vatican copy of the Septuagint, which reads 2,400, 
followed by Symachus, and some copies noticed by 
Jerome, 2,200; both evidently literal errors, in excess 
and defect, which compensate each other and confirm 
the mean, 2,300."— Dr. Hales. 

We confess an inability to see how the correct- 
ness is proved by the learned Doctor. Majorities can 
never really settle a disputed point. And if the Maso- 
retic text plus many other Hebrew MSS. settle a point 
conclusively, then it must be conceded that our version 
of Ex. 12 : 40 is the correct one, notwithstanding the 
Septuagint renders it thus: "The sojourneying of the 
children and of their fathers in the land of Canaan 
and in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 49 

years." Upon the strength of this reading, and other 
historical facts, commentators do not hesitate to ig- 
nore the testimony of the majority to the contrary. 
Majorities fail to prove anything, unless they prove 
the truth. 

According to the evidence submitted, the ancient 
MSS. differ. A board of review, appointed in this 
day and age of the world, can not go back of their 
returns, to settle the correctness of either the 2,400, 
the 2,300, or the 2,200. There is, however, a way of 
settling the question conclusively. Let history — the 
fulfilled prophecy — settle for us which one of the 
three is entitled to be regarded as the true reading. 
No one can object to the fairness of this test. Its 
correctness is absolute. 

The cleansing of the sanctuary clearly denotes the 
end of the period. From the wording of Dan. 8: 13 
we can not determine so very accurately with what 
it begins, because translators find the wording hazy, 
as has been shown. Therefore we turn to another 
scripture which applies to the same events. In Dan. 
11 : 31 it is plainly stated: "And they shall pollute the 
sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily 
sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that 
maketh desolate." From these pollutions the sanc- 
tuary was cleansed; the time of their occurrence 
therefore constitutes the beginning of the period. 
Newton and his followers branch off at verse 30, 
and apply what follows to Rome. But their conclu- 
sion is not in harmony with the specification, for the 



50 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

narrative flows without interruption in the line of 
Grecian history ; besides, the taking away of the daily 
sacrifice is not chargeable to Roman conduct, inas- 
much as Christ, under Rome's dominion, caused them 
to cease. 

How long a space of time, then, lies between the 
two points? How many evening and morning obla- 
tions were omitted? History furnishes us the fol- 
lowing information regarding the initial date : " On 
the fifteenth day of the month Casleu, in the one 
hundred forty and fifth year [of the Selucid era, or 
the year 168 b. a], they set up the abomination of 
desolation on the altar.'' 1 Mac. 1 : 54. In other 
words, an idol altar and image of Jupiter Olympius 
was erected upon the altar of burnt-ofiferings. This 
stopped the offering of Jewish sacrifices. And ten 
days later, namely on the twenty-fifth day of the same 
month, the sacrifices to Jupiter began. On that date, 
too, the sanctuary was polluted by being sprinkled 
with a broth of swine's flesh. 

In 1 Mac. 4 : 52-54 the exact year, month, and day 
are given, when the temple service was resumed. It 
is described in the following language: "Now on the 
five and twentieth day of the ninth month, which is 
called the month Casleu, in the hundred forty and 
eighth year [165 b. c] they rose up betimes in the 
morning, and offered sacrifice according to the law 
upon the new altar of burnt-offerings, which they 
had made. Look, at what time and what day the 
heathen had profaned it, even in that was it dedicated 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 51 

with songs, and citherns, and harps, and cymbals." 
Josephus' remarks on this period are couched in these 
words : "This desolation happened to the temple in 
the hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty-fifth 
day of the month Apelleus, and on the hundred fifty 
and third olympiad; but it was dedicated anew, on 
the same day, the twenty-fifth of the month Apelleus, 
on the hundred and forty-eighth year, and on the 
hundred and fifty-fourth olympiad. And this desola- 
tion came to pass according to the prophecy of Dan- 
iel, which was given four hundred and eight years 
before; for he declared that the Macedonians [a name 
also denoting the Greeks] would dissolve the worship 
[for some time]/' Ant. XII, 7 : 6. In another place 
he says : "And that from among them [the four horns] 
there should arise a certain king that should overcome 
our nation and their laws, and should take away their 
political government, and should spoil the temple, and 
forbid the sacrifices to be offered for three years' 
time. And indeed it so came to pass, that our nation 
suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes, ac- 
cording to Daniel's vision, and what he wrote many 
years before they came to pass/' — Antiquities X, 11, 
7. Josephus failed to make mention of the ten days. 
The full period lasted three years and ten days. 

The Jews did not reckon time in an arbitrary way. 
The Lord had ordained each new moon to be the be- 
ginning of a new month, which was announced, at 
the temple, by the blowing of trumpets, and solem- 
nized by offering special sacrifices. Their beginning 



52 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

was not established by astronomical calculations, but 
by the testimony of watchers, appointed to watch for 
the first appearance of the new moon; and then the 
fact was signaled abroad through the land by kindling 
fires upon elevated locations. Their months were, 
therefore, lunar months of 29^2 days' duration; or, 
one month contained but 29 days and the next one 30. 
In twelve such months there were but 354 days. 
These fell short of being a solar year. The shortage 
was partially remedied at the end of every third year 
by intercalating a thirteenth month. Hence there 
were in a period of three years 3X354=1,062, plus 
29=1,091 days. 

But the period being ten days longer than 1,091 
days, the full duration was 1,091+10=1,101 days. 
This includes the twenty-fifth day of the month Cas- 
leu, on which the daily sacrifices were resumed. The 
exact length from the beginning up to the end of the 
period is, therefore, exactly 1,100 days, or 2,200 eve- 
nings and mornings. This proves the correct reading 
of the text to be: "Unto two thousand and two hun- 
dred evenings and mornings, then shall the sanctuary 
be cleansed." 

Keunen, too, — "Historisch-Critisch Onderzoek," — 
follows the trail with precision. His reasons for the 
terminal points are well grounded. Briefly stated, he 
says : "In verse 13 the period is plainly named, dur- 
ing which the daily sacrifices were to cease, the hor- 
rible iniquity set up, and sanctuary and host to remain 
trodden under foot; and just as plainly is the ' justi- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 53 

fication ' of the sanctuary named in verse 14 as the 
terminus ad quern [terminus to which] . For this rea- 
son, too, we prefer the theory of Bleek. Between the 
desecration and the cleansing of the temple there lay 
(1 Mac. 1:54; 4:52) exactly three years; or, if the 
first be reckoned from the fifteenth of Casleu, three 
years and ten days, i. e., 3X354+30 [29] for a men- 
sis intercalaris = 1,092+10=1,102 days. Conse- 
quently forty-eight less than are required. " This is 
on the assumption that 2,300 is the correct reading. 
Had he computed the time a little more accurately 
and taken 2,200 as the correct reading, he, too, would 
have solved the problem with the utmost precision. 

To bring the foregoing calculations wholly within 
the pale of certainty, the following additional proof 
of an impartial and unbiased critic is submitted. Dis- 
sertation IV of the Appendix to Whiston's "Josephus" 
is devoted to a consideration of what copy of the 
Old Testament served as the authentic record upon 
which Josephus relied in writing his "Antiquities." 
"That Josephus' copy," says Whiston, "was not a lit- 
tle different from the Samaritan and Septuagint cop- 
ies, as they stood in his age, and much more from the 
Masorete copy, as it has been since the days of 
Barchocab, is most evident. That his copy was, gen- 
erally speaking, more perfect and authentic than those 
other copies, will certainly appear by a critical com- 
parison of them all along; and has been frequently 
observed and proved in my Essay toward restoring 
the true text of the Old Testament, and in my Sup- 



54 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

plement to the Literal Accomplishment of Scripture 
Prophecies." What copy Josephus had we can best 
tell by quoting his very words anent this point. "Titus 
Caesar/ 7 thus reads his own account, "when the city 
of Jerusalem was taken by force, persuaded me fre- 
quently to take whatever I pleased out of the ruins 
of my country; for he told me that he gave me leave 
so to do. But there being nothing that I much val- 
ued, now my country was destroyed, I only asked 
of Titus liberty for myself and my family, as the only 
comfort now remaining in my calamities ; / also had 
the holy books by his concession." From this testi- 
mony it is plain that Josephus had the authentic copy 
of the Old Testament found in the temple. And the 
following instances prove that he quoted from the 
Scriptures "laid up in the temple" ; namely, his narra- 
tive relating the miracle of the water flowing out of 
the rock, and of the sun's standing still. Antiq., Bk. 
Ill, ch. 1, sec 7; Bk. V, ch. 1, sec. 17. 

After a long dissertation upon the authenticity of 
that copy, in which many examples of proofs are 
cited, Whiston finally, in the closing paragraph, comes 
to the admission which is so very pertinent to the point 
under consideration. He gives the reason why Jose- 
phus, in his "Antiquities," corrected inaccuracies found 
in his "Wars of the Jews," and "honestly owns, with 
the original authors of the two books of the Macca- 
bees, that such profanation [of the temple] continued 
but three years only; which last is also, I think, a 
remarkable application of Daniel's prophecies, I mean 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 55 

that of the one thousand one hundred evenings and 
one thousand one hundred mornings, two thousand 
two hundred in all, Dan. 8 : 14, which seems to have 
been the number in Josephus' copy, as Jerome says 
some would have it in his time; instead of those two 
thousand three hundred in our Masorete Hebrew, in 
Clem. Alex, in Africanus, in the MS. Alex., and those 
two thousand four hundred in our Vatican copy. ,, 
Thus our explanation stands approved not only by 
history, but also supported by authority before which 
later copies must bow. 

But very little has been said about the treading 
under foot of the host. For a detailed account of 
their sufferings, the reader is referred to the history 
of the Maccabees. In Heb. 1 1 : 34-38 an undoubted 
allusion to their martyrdom is also found. The for- 
sakers of the holy covenant, who had imbibed the 
Greek notion that all religions are equally good for 
keeping the masses in check, eventually experienced 
the falsity of the theory, to their sorrow. 

The prominence given to Antiochus Epiphanes in 
Daniel is because it was the turning-point in Jewish 
history, deciding whether Greek worldly refinement 
was to stifle Israel's true faith. "Persecution was 
God's appointed way to save his people from seduc- 
tions which had well-nigh made them compromise 
their witness for the truth/' — Fansset. And Milman 
testifies on this wise: "As a last insult the feasts of 
the Bacchanalia, the license of which, as they were 
celebrated in the later days of Greece, shocked the 



56 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

severe virtue of the older Romans, were substituted 
for the national festival of Tabernacles. The reluc- 
tant [pious] Jews were forced to join in these riotous 
orgies and carry the ivy, the insignia of the god. So 
near was the Jewish nation and the worship of Jeho- 
vah to total extermination." — History of the Jews. 

Antiochus was the unconscious instrument in God's 
hand to scourge them back onto the path of faith and 
rectitude. The savage and insane violence of this 
tyrant was, in fact, — and surely we may say proverb- 
ially, — the safeguard of the Jews against the greatest 
moral danger to which they had ever been exposed: 
the slow and insidious, but certain and destructive, 
advance of indifference to religious truth, evinced by 
encroachments and gradual prevalence of Grecian 
manners, Grecian corruption, Grecian idolatry, and 
Grecian atheism. 

His fanatacism aroused the dormant energies of 
the whole Jewish people, so that the zealous attach- 
ment to the law and the truth of the Lord, united 
with the generous desire for national independence, 
gave a tone of exaltation to the character of the peo- 
ple, and evoked enthusiasm, a courage, both active 
and passive, which set at defiance the utmost power of 
Antiochus, and which then, and ever since, in the 
stern hour of trial, has animated and sustained the 
Jews to such an extent that it has, in fact, rendered 
them imperishable. 

"Had they basely yielded to Antiochus/' — we quote 
again from "Post-Biblical History of the Jews" — "they 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 57 

might have escaped the ill inflicted upon them; they 
might, like the other inhabitants of geographical 
Syria, have merged into a nationality so contemptible, 
that, in the Greek and Roman plays, the word "slave" 
and "Syrian" were synonymous ; and that, even before 
the war which crushed Syria, the Roman Consul T. Q. 
Flaminius, in reply to a pompous harangue of the 
ambassadors of Antiochus the Great before the Greek 
National Assembly at iEgium (192 b. c.) could take 
upon himself to declare that ' the vile name of Syrian 
comprehended every form of baseness, vice, and serv- 
ility.' Plutarch, in Flamin, and Tit. Liv. lxxxv. cap. 
49. 

"With this corrupt, effeminate, and base, but ele- 
gant, highly polished and pleasure-loving nationality 
the Jews might have been amalgamated. But what 
would have been the consequence to them? Like 
those base Syrians, they would have been swept from 
the face of the earth; their identity would have 
been at an end; their national existence obliterated; 
their influence in the destinies of mankind gone 
forever. The sacred mission, however, that had been 
entrusted to them did not permit so miserable a con- 
summation to their wondrous history; the high and 
holy truth of which they were the guardians and wit- 
nesses forbade so ridiculous a downfall of their lofty 
aspiration. 

"As the Jews were the only people to whom, na- 
tionally, a positive religion had been revealed, the 
dogmas of which excluded all worship but that of 



58 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

God alone, while all around them pantheism and idol- 
atry, with their ever-shifting mythology, prevailed, 
the Jews, among all various religious systems, were 
the first to make a stand in defense of their faith. 
Theirs was the glory of being first called upon to up- 
hold the truth of their belief at the price of life, and 
to seal their conviction with their heart's best blood. 
But as they were the first martyrs persecuted for con- 
science' sake, so they were likewise the first cham- 
pions in the cause of religious liberty. The Greek 
who conquered at Marathon fought for national in- 
dependence; the Romans who expelled Tarquin 
gained a triumph for civil liberty; but the handful of 
Jews who, under Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, 
drew the sword against the overwhelming power of 
Antiochus and his successors, made their stand for 
religious freedom and the rights of conscience. " 

We owe yet a more specific account of how he 
was literally "broken without hands/' as well as when 
the host ceased to be trodden under foot. And this 
being a matter purely historical, we shall quote, on 
this point, from M. J. Raphael's "History of the Jews." 
The following will elucidate the last-named specifica- 
tion : "With the reopening of the temple at Jerusalem, 
and the public observance of the Jewish religion 
throughout the land, the actual rule of the Syro- 
Grecian kings over Judea may be said to have ter- 
minated. For though the war between the province 
of Judea and the empire of Syria continued many 
years longer; though the successors of Antiochus al- 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 59 

ways claimed and often exercised power and sover- 
eignty over Palestine, and the Jews themselves did 
not proclaim their independence till nearly a quarter 
of a century later, yet, from the moment Judas Mac- 
cabeus took possession of Jerusalem, he and after 
him his brothers became de facto rulers of the land. 
He and they were at the head of the armed force; 
he and they conducted the internal administration and 
the foreign policy of Judea; he and they treated with 
the kings of Syria as an independent power against 
another independent power, and entered into treaties 
of alliance with foreign governments, without the 
sanction, and contrary to the will, of these kings, 
whose authority in Judea extended no farther than 
the spot momentarily held by their army, and ceased 
altogether as soon as that army was forced to re- 
treat/' 

And regarding the death of the oppressor, he 
gives the following description: "In an attempt on 
the temple of Jupiter, at Elymais, he first learned of 
the repeated discomfitures and routs of his army in 
Judea — tidings which exasperated to fury the wounds 
which his pride had received at Elymais. Trans- 
ported with ungovernable passion, he swore, in the 
excess of his rage, that utter destruction should be the 
lot of the Jews, and that Palestine should become 
their grave. While he urged the march of his troops 
westward with the utmost precipitation, the immod- 
erate quantities of wine, which he unceasingly swal- 
lowed, caused him to be attacked with a painful and 



60 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

incurable disease of the intestines. Yet on he went, 
his mouth, amid deep curses, uttering the fell pur- 
pose of his heart, till, in his reckless haste, his chariot 
was upset. He was thrown out and much hurt; and 
the foul and diseased state of his body, acting upon 
his wounds, caused them to breed vermin, and to emit 
so pestiferous a smell that his attendants dared not 
approach him. In this loathsome and horrible condi- 
tion, he died at the obscure village of Taboe, situated 
near the extremity of Mt. Zagros, on the road to 
Babylon" (164 b. c). For other particulars see 2 
Mac. 9. 

The explanation has, necessarily, been made as 
brief as possible. The historical evidence adduced is 
but fragmentary. Yet the way is blazed; with the 
requisite historical material at hand, it is an easy 
matter to swell the details to any desired degree of 
fullness. And as regards the historical evidence, 
there is a great plenty of it. For several of the quo- 
tations presented we are indebted to authorities 
found in the Chicago Public Library, which contains 
many volumes on Jewish history. Whoever desires 
to delve deeper into the study of this subject can find 
there a vast amount of material that is readily acces- 
sible. 

At the close of his history of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
Rollin presents the following testimony relative to the 
subject under consideration: "No prophecy," he says, 
"was ever fulfilled in so clear, so perfect, and so in- 
disputable a manner as this. Porphyry, the professed 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIIL 61 

enemy of the Christian religion, as well as of the Old 
and the New Testament, being infinitely perplexed in 
finding so great a conformity between the events fore- 
told by Daniel, and the relations given by the best his- 
torians, did not pretend to deny this conformity; for 
that would have been repugnant to sense, and denying 
the shining of the sun at noonday. However, he took 
another course in order to undermine the authority 
of the Scriptures. He himself labored, by citing all 
the historians extant at that time, and which are since 
lost, to show, in a very extensive manner, that what- 
ever is written in the eleventh chapter of Daniel, hap- 
pened exactly as foretold by the prophet; and he con- 
cluded from this perfect uniformity that so exact a 
detail of so great a number of events could not pos- 
sibly have been written by Daniel so many years be- 
fore they happened ; and that this work must certainly 
have been written by some person who lived after 
Antiochus Epiphanes, and borrowed Daniel's name." 
Think of a fulfillment so complete and convincing 
that an able enemy of Christianity did not pretend to 
deny the conformity to the prophecy, but even lent 
assistance in proving the correctness of the applica- 
tion. And then think of the would-be interpreters of 
the same prophecy, who, in modern times, have in- 
vented crude interpretations that are " repugnant to 
the sense" of historically enlightened minds. They 
either ignorantly or else deliberately repudiate the 
long array of evidence which forced Porphyry to 
shield behind the transparent subterfuge, that the 



62 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

prophecy was but mere history. How easily they 
might have helped him out of his dilemma by merely 
dropping the suggestion that the little horn repre- 
sents "pagan Rome" and "papal Rome"! We fancy 
that he would have dismissed them with the counsel 
to school themselves more thoroughly in history, be- 
fore they again attempted to stand up as expounders 
of the plainly fulfilled word. 

Misapplied prophecy unavoidably brings disap- 
pointment in the end. Perforce this inexorable law, 
thousands were disappointed in 1844. The few who 
then survived the shipwreck of faith, revised their 
creed to suit the exigency of the case. Nevertheless, 
the expedient proved to be but an abortive attempt 
in constructing a theory that will harmonize with the 
terms of the prophecy. Even in its latest, up-to-date, 
remodeled form it can not yet stand the test of sound, 
scriptural criticism. The fact of the matter is, it is 
an utter impossibility to harmonize the doctrine of 
the heavenly sanctuary with a prophecy dealing with 
the pollution and the cleansing of the Jewish temple. 
It lacks the "eternal fitness" of things. 

In a modified form Miller's theory is still believed. 
During full seventy years it has been believed that 
the sanctuary was to be cleansed at the end of the 
2,300 years. The time is not far distant when the 
numerical reading of the Septuagint will be accepted 
as the correct one. This is neither a bold assertion 
nor a prophetic guess, for the shrewder ones already 
admit that we are, at this very day and hour, much 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 63 

nearer the 2,400 than the 2,300 mark. The idea has 
received favorable consideration. And why should 
it not, seeing they allow ample time for it since the 
present slogan is, "The gospel to all the world in this 
generation." 

All correctly interpreted prophecy affixes the seal 
of confirmation to the vision, and begets a stronger 
confidence in every other word of God. When "thus 
it is written/' and "thus it behooved" can be laid side 
by side, the demonstration is incontrovertible. It is 
proof that begets conviction. But such futile attempts 
as have been assailed, beget distrust and unbelief. 
Quite a while may intervene between the sowing and 
the reaping, nevertheless the harvest will follow after 
the seedtime. Accordingly, it is an open secret that 
very many "veterans of the cause" have lost their 
former conviction. Hundreds of others have slipped 
their anchors, and are now, like derelicts upon the 
ocean, drifting toward destruction. They are threat- 
ened with disbelief in God and his revealed religion. 

Aside from correcting mistaken ideas, it is our 
aim, in writing this, to inspire confidence in the ut- 
most reliability of the prophetic word. Prophecy is 
a sure word, and we are admonished to give heed to 
it, as unto a light shining in a dark place. It is given 
for guidance through the dark mazes of life's laby- 
rinth. But that light misinterpreted becomes a men- 
ace to safety. The beacons lit along the coast serve 
to guide the mariner into the desired haven. Yet, 
when the color or the flashes of those lights are mis- 



64 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

taken for those placed at other locations, the rocks 
and shoals are not looked for in their proper places; 
and thus the very lights may cause destruction. On 
the other hand, when prophecy is correctly inter- 
preted, its guidance is absolutely safe. But when its 
meaning is misconstrued, people wrest it, like any 
other portion of Scripture, to their own detriment or 
destruction. 

At first glance, the foregoing explanation of Dan- 
iel 8 may seem to undermine the belief in the nearness 
of the Lord's coming. If any one's belief is built 
upon that prophecy, then the interpretation tends to 
undermine his belief. This is freely and frankly ad- 
mitted. We do not desire to be misunderstood. We 
have striven to prove that that prophecy does not con- 
tah the remotest allusion to <our Saviour or to his 
mediatorial work. Thousands of firm believers in the 
doctrine of the advent have never even so much as 
dreamed of proving their faith by that prophecy. It 
would never have been used to prove the proximity 
of that event, if Wm. Miller and his colaborers had 
but taken the pains to test his interpretation by his- 
torical evidence. As it turned out — and it logically 
could not turn out otherwise — his application was 
wrong as to event, nature, and time. His theory 
should have been rejected then and there, because it 
failed to stand the test. It stood condemned, even 
before it went to trial, for "of that day and that hour 
knoweth no man." Nevertheless, thousands believed 



The Prophecy of Daniel VIII. 65 

him, rather than God's caution. Their disappointment 
is, therefore, not chargeable to the Lord. 

To err is human, to acknowledge an error re- 
quires more than the average amount of courage ; and 
to point out an error is a thankless task. Some mis- 
construe the motive, with others the paramount ques- 
tion is, Who said it? or Who believes it? A very 
few weigh the evidence with the least, or with no, 
prejudice. 

The world of to-day lives in expectancy, as did 
they who saw Messiah's "star in the east," at the 
time of his first advent. Christians, whose thoughts 
are not wholly engrossed with the cares of this life, 
or bent on seeking the pleasures of the world, per- 
ceive the shadows of coming events. Devout men and 
women are interpreting the signs of the times, which 
presage the ushering in of another day. The mission 
fields are white, and waiting for the sickle to be thrust 
in. The proclamation of the gospel is already heard 
in all lands. Hundreds of missionaries feel con- 
strained to work like men who rescue others from a 
sinking ship. These, as well as other signs, betoken 
that the Spirit leads where the definite (numerically 
expressed) guidance of prophecy fails. Let us all 
see to it, then, that we are amenable to his guidance ; 
let us listen to his whispers ; for then shall we read 
the signs aright, and not be found without oil in our 
lamps when the Bridegroom comes. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE 1844 TIME 
THEORY 

BY MOSES E. KELLOGG. 

The prophetic symbols of the book of Daniel have 
long been the cause of much study and exposition, 
often combined with considerable speculation. The 
study of these, as of all scripture, is profitable, and 
perhaps such study and attempted exegesis is impos- 
sible without some degree of speculation; but when 
the speculation is of such a nature that its acceptance 
leads to a great religious excitement and almost 
world-wide movement, culminating in the disappoint- 
ment and consequent loss of faith in the hearts of 
thousands of sincere people, it would be better, to say 
the least, had such speculation not been indulged. As 
most of our readers are probably aware, the prophetic 
period contained in Daniel 8, commonly treated of 
and referred to as the 2,300 days, was the basis of 
the wide-spread belief of many people that Christ 
would make his second advent to this world in the 
year 1844. It is also as well, perhaps better, known 
that nothing of the kind occurred; and although six- 
ty-three years of time have elapsed since 1844, the 
looked-for event has not yet transpired. 

The disappointment of those who expected the re- 
turn of Christ in 1844 was keenly felt by all who 
had preached and believed the doctrine, and having 
made considerable stir in the world, and drawn upon 



An examination of the 1844 Time Theory. 67 

themselves a large amount of adverse criticism, they 
were very reluctant to give up the idea that they 
were entirely wrong in their exposition of the pro- 
phetic symbols. To maintain their position in the 
face of the fact that nothing such as they had pre- 
dicted had occurred, some made new discoveries in 
prophetic reckoning by which the time was somewhat 
prolonged; but the last date set by these zealous but 
evidently misguided persons has long passed by, and 
no reputable people who take the name of "Advent- 
ist" now have any fixed time for the coming of Christ 
and the end of all things, — time having fully demon- 
strated the futility of such calculations. 

It may be here remarked that the scripture most 
used to prove that Christ would come in 1844 does 
not state that Christ would come at any time, but 
that "Unto two thousand and three hundred days then 
shall the sanctuary be cleansed." Dan 8 : 14. The 
deduction from this text was that the word "sanctu- 
ary" meant the earth, and that the cleansing would be 
by fire. 

The passing of the set time with nothing that 
could be seen to mark the alleged ending of the pro- 
phetic period developed another theory, — that the 
sanctuary referred to in the text is in heaven ; and 
that the cleansing is the last work of Christ as the 
Mediator and High Priest of the Christian age, the 
work corresponding to that of the Jewish high priest 
under the Levitical law ; and as the work of cleansing 
or justification of that Levitical sanctuary occupied 



68 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

only the last day of the yearly round of services, and 
probably only a part of that day, it was argued that 
this period of cleansing would necessarily be very 
brief and that at its close Christ would come. 

The writer will here make the frank statement 
that he for many years held the last-mentioned view, 
but he would add that he was not one of the original 
1844 Adventists. He never passed through the pe- 
riod of disappointment, but inherited his faith in the 
1844 sanctuary-cleansing theory from those who first 
received it, and accepted it at a time when from youth 
and the lack of a proper knowledge of history he was 
unable correctly to weigh evidence and to decide for 
himself in an intelligent manner matters of so grave 
importance. 

Those who have held to the theory of the sanc- 
tuary in heaven to be cleansed, beginning at 1844, 
have often contended with those who maintain that 
the earth is the sanctuary, that the long period of 
time that has elapsed since 1844 is proof positive that 
they are wrong in their views; and now it strikes the 
writer with great force that they also may retort 
against those who hold the heavenly sanctuary theory 
that time has also demonstrated the fallacy of their 
position. Indeed, we believe it to be a fact that all 
those who have looked for the end of the prophetic 
period of Daniel 8 at any time in this or any sub- 
sequent time, are wandering in the dark, and that 
time, instead of relieving their minds by the realiza- 
tion of their hopes, will only plunge them deeper into 



An examination of the 1844 Time Theory. 6 

perplexity, further disappointment, gloom, and de- 
spair. 

It is, therefore, the part of wisdom for those who 
have been holding this view, carefully to consider this 
prophecy again, studying it as though they had never 
studied it before. They should also be willing to give 
up any preconceived view, no matter how dear it may 
be to them or how truly believed and honestly advo- 
cated by men whom they have held and may still hold 
as men of the highest Christian character, recognizing 
the fact that through all time good men make mistakes 
in their calculations. 

We now, therefore, invite those who read these 
lines to study with us anew this prophecy. 

THE PROPHETIC SYMBOLS. 

The symbols of this chapter are (1) a ram with 
two horns; (2) a he-goat with a certain remarkable 
development of horns; (3) a prophetic period com- 
monly referred to as the 2,300 days. 

Of the first symbol it is necessary to say but lit- 
tle, as the angel in his explanation to Daniel declared 
that the ram represents the Medo-Persian kingdom. 
The goat is, also, declared to be a symbol of Grecia, 
and the great horn that was between his eyes, and 
that was afterward broken, is explained to signify 
the first king. As Alexander, commonly called the 
Great, was the first Grecian king that combined all 
the Grecian states in a war against a foreign power, 
and particularly as the subsequent division of his em- 



70 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

pire into four Grecian kingdoms is in exact harmony 
with the symbols, students of prophecy, without re- 
spect to creed, have universally declared that the great 
horn symbolized Alexander, and that the four horns 
that came up in its place, when the great horn was 
broken, represented the four kingdoms of Macedon, 
Thrace, Syria, and Egypt, into which the empire of 
Alexander was divided. 

So far Bible expositors are generally in harmony 
with each other ; but concerning the next development 
there is a variety of opinions : "And out of one of them 
[the four horns of the goat] came forth a little horn, 
which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and 
toward the east, and toward the pleasant land. And 
it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it 
cast down some of the host and of the stars to the 
ground, and stamped upon them. And an host was 
given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of 
transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, 
and it practiced and prospered." Dan. 8 : 9-12. 

Of this little horn that came out of the one of the 
horns of the goat, really a king or power that came 
out of one of the four kingdoms into which the em- 
pire of Alexander was divided at his death, there is 
difference of opinion, chief of which are (1) that it 
is a symbol of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, 
one of the Syrian line of Greek kings; (2) that it is 
a symbolic prophecy of the Roman power in its two 
forms of Pagan and Papal Rome. 

Of those who have held these divergent views of 



Antlochus and not Rome. 71 

the prophecy, the earliest Bible expositors claimed 
that the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes was meant. 
Later, some Protestant commentators thought that 
they saw in the prophecy of this power an outline of 
the Roman empire. 

ANTIOCHUS AND NOT ROME. 

After having studied these views and the grounds 
for the same with great carefulness, the writer is of 
the opinion that the earliest Biblical expositors are 
right, and that the little horn of Daniel 8 is used in 
this prophecy to represent Antiochus Epiphanes and 
his sacriligious attacks upon the Jewish people and 
the profanation of their sanctuary, which he accom- 
plished. 

We would first remark that as the angel distinctly 
stated that the rough goat was a symbol of Grecia, 
it therefore follows that all that pertains to it is 
Grecian. The great horn in the forehead of the goat 
was a symbol of a Greek king, Alexander. The other 
four notable horns that came up when the great horn 
was broken were also Greek dynasties, as all must 
admit. It is therefore perfectly consonant with rea- 
son to conclude that the last-mentioned little horn 
that came out of one of the Greek horns is also Greek, 
and it would be inconsistent to hold that it was any- 
thing else. 

It is also a fact that Rome did not come out of 
any of the Greek kingdoms. Rome, in its rise, was 
entirely outside of the Greek dominions. The Ro- 



72 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

mans were a rising and strong people in the days of 
Alexander; and, at the time of his conquests, they 
declared that had he turned his arms in their direc- 
tion, they would have taught him a lesson. The most 
able exponent of the view that the little horn is a 
symbol of Rome, can only say upon this point that as 
Rome had conquered Macedon, one of the Greek 
kingdoms, b. c. 168, and made its league with the 
Jews, b. c. 161, "it therefore appeared to the prophet, 
or may be properly spoken of in this prophecy, as 
coming forth from one of the horns of the goat." — 
Thoughts on Daniel, p. 154. 

Of this statement it may be said that the prophet 
is not telling what appeared to him, but what really 
was, and Rome did not really come out of any one 
of the Greek kingdoms. It grew for centuries before 
it even came in contact with any of the Greek states. 

Notice further the time of the rise of the little 
horn power : "And in the latter time of their kingdom, 
when the transgressors are come to the full, a king 
of fierce countenance and understanding dark sen- 
tences shall stand up." Dan. 8 : 23. 

It is remarkable how those who hold the little 
horn to be a symbol of Rome, slip over this very im- 
portant chronological statement, "In the latter time 
of their kingdom." Whose kingdom? — The four 
kingdoms that rose out of Alexander's broken empire. 
Then the Greek kingdoms of Alexander's successors 
had not passed away when the little horn arose, and 
hence Rome had not yet come into the field of proph- 



Antiochus and not Rome. 73 

ecy when the little horn performed its work. If Rome 
were the power referred to, it would be folloiving 
the four kingdoms and not in their time. The fact 
that this little horn kingdom existed and acted "In 
the time of their kingdom," is absolute proof that it 
did not reign and act in the time allotted to Rome for 
the performance of its work, and that it is one of the 
Greek kings. Notice also the similarity of the lan- 
guage used in Daniel 8, to that used in the Apocrypha 
in describing Antiochus Epiphanes : "And after his 
[Alexander's] death they [Alexander's servants] put 
crowns upon themselves, so did their sons after them 
many years, and evils were multiplied. And there 
came out of one of them a wicked root, Antiochus 
Epiphanes/' 1 Mac. 1:9, 10. 

We are now ready to inquire at what time in the 
line of the Syrian Greek kings were the reign and 
wicked exploits of Antiochus Epiphanes. 

The first of the Seleucidea, or Syrian line of kings, 
was Seleucus, who began to reign b. c. 306. This 
line of kings continued until b. c. 65, or 241 years. 
Antiochus Epiphanes reigned from b. c. 175 to 164. 
He therefore began to reign when 131 years of the 
Seleucid dynasty was in the past ; and as he reigned 
to b. c. 164, and as the Seleucid empire came to an 
end b. c. 65, he reigned 131 years from the beginning 
of the line and to within 99 years of its end. He 
therefore reigned in the latter part of the Seleucid 
line of kings. And since all the Greek kingdoms 
came under the power of Rome at nearly the same 



74 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

time, the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes was, as this 
prophecy declares, "in the latter time of their [the 
Greek powers'] kingdom." 

Again, the whole work of the little horn carries 
the impression that it is one single king rather than 
that of a long line of kings, or a government that 
covered many centuries. Its work was accomplished 
"in the time of their kingdom" (the Greek successors 
of Alexander), whereas the career of Rome was con- 
tinued for many centuries after the Greek empires 
had perished. 

It is an axiomatic truth, accepted by all Bible 
students, that the connection of any power with the 
people of God is the cause of its introduction into 
prophecy. Now, if the little horn be a symbol of 
Rome, it could not begin its work as a desolating 
power before b. c. 161, when its famous league with 
the Jews was made. As a matter of fact, Rome was 
at first the protector of the Jews, and did not begin a 
warfare against them until about a. d. 70, when, be- 
cause of their rebellion, Titus took Jerusalem. If 
Rome is intended by the little horn, and it has 2,300 
years of warfare against the people of God to per- 
form, then we must look for 2,300 years of time from 
a. d. 70. There is no evading this conclusion. 

THE CAREER OF ANTIOCHUS. 

Before we proceed any further, we will put to- 
gether all that is said of this power whose identity 
we are seeking to ascertain. 



The Career of Antiochus. 75 

"And out of one of them came forth a little horn 
which waxed exceeding great, toward the south and 
toward the east, and toward the pleasant land : and it 
waxed great even to the host of heaven ; and it cast 
down some of the host and of the stars to the ground 
and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself 
even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily 
sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanc- 
tuary was cast down. And an host was given him 
against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression; 
and it cast down the truth to the ground ; and it prac- 
ticed and prospered." Verses 9-12. 

Add to this the angel's explanation : — 

"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the 
transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce 
countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall 
stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not 
by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, 
and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the 
mighty and the holy people. And through his policy 
also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and 
he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace 
shall destroy many : he shall also stand up against 
the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without 
hand." Verses 23-25. 

We have already proved that Antiochus Epiphanes 
reigned at the right time to fulfill this prophecy, and 
that Rome did not. Now let us further study the 
career of this king. 

Did Antiochus Epiphanes make any conquest in 



76 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

the south? — He did. He conquered Egypt and made 
it a part of his empire. Proof: "Now when the king- 
dom was established before Antiochus Epiphanes, he 
thought to reign over Egypt, that he might have do- 
minion over two realms. Therefore he entered Egypt 
with a great multitude, with chariots, and elephants, 
and horsemen, and a great army, and made war 
against Ptolome, king of Egypt; but Ptolome was 
afraid of him and fled, and many of them were 
wounded to death. Thus they got the strong cities in 
the land of Egypt, and he took the spoils thereof." 
1 Mac. 1 : 16-19. 

What did he do in the east? He ravaged Persia 
and Armenia with fire and sword. Proof: "He [An- 
tiochus Epiphanes] resolved to divide his forces into 
two parts, to give command of one of his armies to 
Lysias, descended from the royal blood, in order that 
he might subdue the Jews, and marched the other 
into Armenia and afterwards into Persia, to reinstate 
the affairs of those provinces in their former flour- 
ishing condition. . . . After passing Mount Taurus 
he entered Armenia, defeated Artaxias and took him 
prisoner. He marched from thence into Persia where 
he supposed he would have no further trouble of that 
rich province and those in its neighborhood. " Rollin, 
Book 18, p. 136. 

What were his operations in the pleasant land? — 
He took Jerusalem and murdered a vast number of 
the Jews, — the mighty and the holy people. The ter- 
rible butcheries and other crimes of the most shock- 



The Career of Antiochns. 77 

ing character that he committed on the people of Is- 
rael are recorded in the first book of the Maccabees 
and in Josephus' and Rollin's histories. Those who 
defend the view that the little horn is a symbol of 
Rome, are very careful never to mention these acts 
of Antiochus Epiphanes. 

Again, in exact harmony with the prophecy, An- 
tiochus Epiphanes took away or, in other words, 
stopped the daily sacrifices of the Jews and had hea- 
then sacrifices offered in their place: "Now the fif- 
teenth day of the month Casleu, in the one hundred 
forty and fifth year, they [Antiochus Epiphanes and 
his army] set up the abomination of desolation upon 
the altar, and builded idol altars throughout the cit- 
ies of Judea on every side, and burnt incense at the 
doors of their houses and in the streets." 1 Mac. 1 : 
54, 55. 

The book of Maccabees also tells how the sanc- 
tuary was trodden down and defiled: 

"And behold our sanctuary, even our beauty and 
our glory is laid waste, and the Gentiles have defiled 
it." 1 Mac. 2:12. 

Again: "Now Jerusalem lay void as a wilderness, 
there was none of her children that went in or out: 
the sanctuary also was trodden down and aliens kept 
the stronghold: the heathen had their habitation in 
that place, and joy was taken from Jacob, and the pipe 
with the harp ceased. For thy sanctuary is trodden 
down and profaned, and thy priests are in heaviness 
and brought low." 1 Mac. 3:45, 51. 



78 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

"A king of fierce countenance. " These words 
could not apply to a long line of kings of various char- 
acters and dispositions. They do exactly describe An- 
tiochus Epiphanes, who was a man in whom all noble 
thoughts were dead. He is held up by all historians 
as a perfect example of a ferocious tyrant. "He caused 
craft to prosper in his hand." By the high honor he 
bestowed upon such of the Jews as would give up 
their religion, he made a peace that destroyed many 
souls. The expression "host of heaven" which is said 
to have been cast down by him, must be a figurative 
allusion to the dignitaries of the Jewish people. Those 
who were like the stars in the darkness, and who re- 
fused to give up the worship of Jehovah were des- 
troyed without mercy. The high priest was deposed 
and a renegade Jew was placed in his room. These 
works were not accomplished by his own power, but 
God permitted him to punish his people because of 
their transgressions. 

Thus in every particular the history of Antiochus 
Epiphanes fulfils the prophecy of the little horn of 
Daniel 8. And if the reader will take the pains to 
study the first book of the Maccabees, in the apocry- 
phal scriptures, and Josephus' and Rollin's histories, 
he will find many other confirmatory proofs that we 
have not space to use in this brief treatise. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 

At this time it is proper that a careful and candid 
consideration should be given to certain arguments 



Objections Answered. 79 

that are used to sustain the idea that Antiochus Epiph- 
anes is not the one whose career is symbolized by the 
little horn of Daniel 8. 

1. It is argued that Antiochus Epiphanes could 
not be the little horn and at the same time a part of 
the horn from which he sprang. Or, as an able and 
honest exponent of the view that Rome is the sub- 
ject of this prophecy thus expresses it: "Antiochus 
Epiphanes, then, was simply one of the twenty-six 
kings who constituted the Syrian horn of the goat. 
He was for the time being that horn ; hence could not 
be at the same time a separate and independent power 
or another and remarkable horn as the little horn 
was." — Thoughts on Daniel, pp. 151, 152. 

The Syrian horn certainly includes Antiochus 
Epiphanes, but it could hardly be said that any one 
of its twenty-six kings at any time constituted that 
horn. It took them all together to make it. The 
four notable horns were symbolic of four dynasties. 
The reader will also recall the fact that the goat was 
a symbol of the whole Grecian empire from the first 
to the last, but at the same time one horn on the 
head of that goat was a symbol of one individual 
king, Alexander, as all admit. Now just as the goat 
was a symbol of Grecia as a whole, and at the same 
time the one notable horn in its forehead represented 
one king, so the Syrian horn represented the whole 
line of the Syrian kings, the dynasty, — but the little 
horn that came out of it represented one king of the 
line whose career the Lord wished especially to de- 



80 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

scribe. Did the Lord wish to foretell with minute- 
ness the history of one king of this Syrian line, how 
else better could he do it than by describing it as a 
little horn coming out of a larger one? As before 
remarked, the whole Greek empire, in all its phases 
and divisions, is symbolized by the goat and its va- 
rious development of horns ; and it would be highly 
incongruous to speak of Rome as being in any way 
evolved from the Greek empire. 

2. "If it were proper to apply this symbol to any 
one of the Syrian kings, it should certainly be ap- 
plied to the most powerful and illustrious of them all. 
. . . Although he took the name Epiphanes, that is, 
The Illustrious, . . . some thinking him a fool and 
others a madman, they changed the name of Epiph- 
anes into Epimanes, or the ' Mad Man/ " — Thoughts 
on Daniel, p. 152. 

Precisely, and for the very reason that he "mag- 
nified himself in his heart" and called himself the 
"illustrious/' when he acted like a mad man, is the 
best reason why his career is noted in prophecy. The 
other kings of his line did not wage a cruel and re- 
lentless warfare against the people of God, did not 
take away the sacrifice, did not profane the sanctuary 
and tread it under foot, and so they are not introduced 
into the prophecy in any specific manner. As before 
stated, the connection of any power with the people 
of God is a special reason that attention is called to 
it in the prophetic scriptures. There was surely abun- 



Objections Answered. 81 

dant reason for such attention in the career of Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes. , 

3. The Romans finally gained the ascendancy and 
compelled Antiochus Epiphanes to evacuate Egypt. 

This proves nothing in the case. All the Greek 
kingdoms were in the end subdued by Rome, but 
they acted their part just the same. 

4. The little horn is called exceeding great in 
comparison with Persia and Greece, which could not 
be true in regard to Antiochus Epiphanes. 

It is an entirely gratuitous assumption to say that 
the power represented by the little horn is in the scrip- 
tures declared to be "exceeding great" in comparison 
with any power. The prophet institutes no compari- 
son between the little horn and any other power. It 
is not called a great horn : it is not even spoken of as 
a notable horn. On the contrary, it is emphatically 
described as "a little horn," but is said to have waxed 
"exceeding great" in three directions which are spe- 
cified; namely, the south, east, and the pleasant land. 
This was true of Antiochus Epiphanes, who from a 
small beginning became great in tyranny and oppres- 
sion of the Jewish people. On the contrary, Rome 
was far from being a little power at the time it was 
first introduced into prophecy. Again, if Rome were 
the subject of this prophecy, the prophet might have 
said it waxed great toward the north, and toward the 
west as well as toward the east, for Rome extended 
its power in all directions. This is especially true of 
the popes of Rome, who are held to be included in 



82 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

this prophecy of the little horn. In the east Rome 
has lost much, the Greek church and Mohammedanism 
having taken that portion of the world, but the bar- 
barous tribes of the west of Europe, that broke up 
the western empire of Rome, were the chief support 
of the papacy during the middle ages, and still far- 
ther west, in the two Americas, the pope has millions 
of adherents and supporters. 

THE DAILY SACRIFICE. 

Another feature of this remarkable prophecy must 
here be considered: The crowning act of impiety of 
this power was that it took away, or caused to cease, 
the sacrifices of the Jewish nation which were or- 
dained of God and which were a most solemn and 
impressive part of his public worship. This Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes did, as we have already noted. 

Right here those who hold the view that the lit- 
tle horn is a symbol of Rome, oppose by saying that 
as the word "sacrifice" is not in the original text of 
Daniel's prophecy, but is a word supplied by the 
translators, the daily sacrifices of the Jews are not 
meant, but that something else that goes on every day 
is referred to. They then contend that the word 
"daily" means paganism and that the "transgression 
of desolation" (Dan. 8:13) means Papal Rome. 

This is nothing but assumption without a particle 
of proof. The translators supplied the right word 
in order to make clear to the readers of English the 
same idea which the word "daily" alone signified in 



The Daily Sacrifice. 83 

the original. The word "daily/ 5 by long usage, had 
come to be the shortened way of reference to the 
"daily sacrifice. " It is somewhat remarkable, to put 
the case mildly, how persons of no unusual endow- 
ments of scholarship deny to the learned men who 
translated the Scriptures the right to add the word 
"sacrifice," while at the same time these would-be 
critics of their own accord cheerfully add the word 
"desolation." 

One writer thus states his view: "The idea of 
sacrifice does not attach to the word i daily ' at all." 
— Thoughts on Daniel, p. 157. 

But pray tell us how the word desolation attaches 
to the word? The word "daily" conveys the idea of 
continuity, and that is the very idea that pertains to 
the sacrifices. "Now this is that which thou shalt 
offer upon the altar, two lambs of the first year day 
by day continually" Ex. 29-33. See also Num. 28: 
3-10. 

It was to be a continuous act of national public 
worship, and its suspension would be a heaven-daring 
affront to Almighty God. Concerning the word "daily" 
Gesenius, who is the highest authority on Hebrew 
text says : "i\djective used as substantive, continual, 
perpetual, daily, as moving on continually without in- 
terruption; a continual burnt offering or sacrifice; i. e., 
continued daily both morning and evening." Davies 
in his "Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon" gives the word 
this definition : "Continuance, burnt offering of con- 
tinuance, i. e., continued daily burnt offering." Bevan, 



84 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

a noted Bible scholar, gives the following free trans- 
lation of the text in question : "How long is the vision 
to be while the daily sacrifice is taken away and the 
iniquity set up from the time when he w 7 ill tread 
down the sanctuary and the service." Again he says : 
"Continuance, daily, stands in Daniel and in the Tal- 
mud for the continual daily offering" 

From these quotations and definitions from emi- 
nent authorities (and many more might be added) 
it is evident that the translators in supplying the word 
"sacrifice" only gave to the reader of English the 
same idea that the language of the original conveyed 
to those who read that language. 

NOT A SYMBOL OF TWO POWERS. 

The attempt to make the little horn a symbol of 
the Roman empire and also of the papal church, — a 
kind of dual symbol and yet one power succeeding the 
other, — involves those who hold that view in many 
absurdities. Thus we read : "This little horn must be 
understood to symbolize Rome in its entire history 
including its two phases, pagan and papal. ... In 
the actions ascribed to this power, sometimes one form 
is spoken of and sometimes the other. By him (the 
papal form) the daily (the pagan form) was taken 
away. Pagan Rome was remodeled into papal Rome, 
and thus the place of his sanctuary, the city of Rome, 
was cast down." — Thoughts on Daniel, p. 154, 155. 

Was there ever such a remarkable juggling of 
words to make it appear that one horn represents 



Not a Symbol of Two Powers. 85 

two powers? Really, separated from the descriptive 
phrases enclosed in brackets, the writer quoted would 
have it read thus : By the little horn the power of the 
little horn w r as taken away, and the place of the sanc- 
tuary of the little horn was cast down! 

There is absolutely nothing in the text to prove or 
suggest that the power under discussion has two 
phases. This is but a device to make the symbol 
cover something to which it has no relation whatever. 
A little more good common sense and not so much 
freedom taken with personal pronouns and antece- 
dents is a better way of treating this text. The reader 
will also notice that it is assumed that pagan Rome 
had a sanctuary located in Rome ! But in the same 
book from which we have already made several quo- 
tations the author describing the Jewish sanctuary, 
says : "This is the only sanctuary connected with the 
earth concerning which the Bible gives us any in- 
struction or history any record. " p. 168. How then 
about that heathen sanctuary in Rome referred to by 
the same writer on page 155 of same book? The 
memory of the author of that book must have been 
at fault there. But we believe that the latter state- 
ment is correct, and that both the Bible and history 
are silent as to any other earthly sanctuary than the 
Jewish sanctuary. 

Then instead of one phase of the little horn tramp- 
ling down another phase of the same horn, — a most 
preposterous assumption, — we have the clear and log- 
ical statement that the little horn, a unit in its en- 



86 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

< . n 

tirety, tramples upon and pollutes the sanctuary of 
the Jewish people, the sanctuary of Jehovah. This 
is precisely what Antiochus Epiphanes did. 

THE PRINCE OF PRINCES. 

It is further urged that Antiochus Epiphanes could 
not stand up against the Prince of princes since Christ 
was not then born. But granting that Christ is here 
referred to, the existence of Christ prior to his incar- 
nation in the flesh and his direction of his people is 
an accepted doctrine with all Christians. In the days 
of Joshua he appeared to that leader of Israel as the 
"captain of the Lord's host." Joshua 5 : 14. He was 
just as truly the Prince of princes before as after 
his incarnation, and any power that rose against his 
chosen people was opposing him. 

THE DEATH OF ANTIOCHUS. 

In closing this part of the subject a word upon 
the tragic death of Antiochus Epiphanes is in order: 
Learning that the Jews under their renowned leader, 
Judas Maccabeus, had defeated his army in Pales- 
tine and reestablished the sanctuary service, he de- 
termined to destroy all the Jewish people. While 
making a hurried march in that direction, he was 
seized with a fatal sickness and soon died acknowledg- 
ing with his last breath that he was being punished 
for the miseries which he had brought upon the Jew- 
ish people. 1 Mac. 6. Thus was fulfilled the proph- 
ecy concerning the little horn that he should be bro- 
ken without hand. 



Two Desolating Powers. 87 

TWO DESOLATING POWERS. 

The claim that two desolating powers, paganism 
and the papacy are predicted in Daniel 8, will now 
be further considered. 

We readily grant that in order to understand the 
book of Daniel we must recognize the fact that in 
its prophetic scope it describes two desolating pow- 
ers, but these are not two phases of the same power. 
The work accomplished is similar in many re- 
spects, though the work of the two may be readily 
separated and defined. These two powers may be 
called the Syrian abomination and the Roman abom- 
ination. That there was a Syrian abomination the 
following is proof: "Now upon the fifteenth day of 
the month Casleu, in the one hundred forty and fifth 
year they [referring to Antiochus Epiphanes and his 
followers] set up the abomination of desolation upon 
the altar and builded idol altars throughout the cities 
of Judea on every side/' This apocryphal scripture 
is absolute proof that there was a Syrian abomination 
of desolation, and that it trod down and profaned the 
sanctuary. 

But there was also a Roman abomination referred 
to in Dan. 9 : 26, 27 : "And for the overspreading of 
abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the 
consummation, and that determined shall be poured 
upon the desolate/' Marginal reading: "And upon 
the battlements shall be the idols of the desolator." 
This is the abomination which Christ spoke of when 
long this side of the defiling of the sanctuary by the 



88 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

Syrians, he said, "When ye therefore shall see the 
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the 
prophet, stand in the holy place, . . . then let 
them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." 
Matt. 24:15. 

To recapitulate: The Syrian king Antiochus 
Epiphanes took away the Jewish sacrifices; profaned 
the sanctuary and trod down the truth of God as then 
represented by the Jewish people, destroying many 
thousands of them; magnified himself and practiced 
and prospered ; but from this defilement the sanctuary 
was cleansed and worship reestablished there by Ju- 
das Maccabeus and his brethren within the time spe- 
cified in this prophecy, as we shall later see. The Ro- 
mans also polluted the sanctuary and placed there 
the abomination that maketh desolate, but they did 
more. "And the people of the prince that shall come 
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." Dan. 9: 
26. "And for the overspreading of abomination he 
shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, 
and that determined shall be poured upon the deso- 
late." Verse 27. 

It is worthy of especial notice, in this comparison 
of these two powers, that in Daniel 9, where Rome 
is so certainly and conspicuously brought to view 
there is no charge made that the sacrifices were 
taken away, but only that the sanctuary was des- 
troyed. This omission to mention the sacrifices in 
connection with the placing of the Roman abomina- 
tion when so much stress is laid upon this act when 



The Twenty-Three Hundred Days. 89 

done by the Syrian king, is readily understood from 
the fact that the virtue of these sacrifices had ceased 
when Christ, the great Sacrifice, expired upon the 
cross, over thirty years before. Then the veil of 
the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bot- 
tom (Matt. 27:51). After that it was a useless 
service, not worthy of mention. 

We must then conclude that from every line of 
argument bearing on this question Antiochus Epiph- 
anes is symbolized by the little horn of Daniel 8. 
He took away the Jewish sacrifice, thus for the time 
suspending the public national act of worship com- 
manded by Almighty God; he established a heathen 
worship in Jerusalem and throughout the Judean cit- 
ies; he trod down the sanctuary and desolated the 
country; he put to death, by many cruel ways of tor- 
ture, those who held fast to their religion. 

THE TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED DAYS. 

We now come to a very important, probably the 
most important, point in the study of this prophecy: 
Since the prophecy of the little horn relates to the 
impious acts of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes, 
the question regarding the length of the period of 
desolation also relates to this same power. In other 
words, the question, "How long shall be the vision 
concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression 
of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host 
to be trodden under foot? " (Dan. 8: 13), is a question 
regarding the length of time that Antiochus Epiph- 



90 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning, 

anes would be allowed to tread down and pollute the 
sanctuary. And the answer to that question, "Unto 
two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the 
sanctuary be cleansed/' also relates to that same 
Syrian king and gives the time of his career against 
the people of God, and the date of the undoing of 
his work by the cleansing of the sanctuary and the 
restoration of the daily sacrifices as commanded in 
the law of Moses. 

Before going farther upon this subject, it is nec- 
essary to state, with more minuteness than we have 
heretofore done, the position taken in reference to 
this prophecy by those who looked for the coming of 
Christ and the end of the world in the autumn of 
the year 1844. 

The theory advanced by those zealous but evi- 
dently misguided people was that the little horn of 
Daniel 8 is a symbol of Rome. But as the civil power 
of Rome expired in the fifth century and as these ex- 
positors were anxious to lengthen out the prophetic 
period so as to make it reach to their own time, it 
was held that this horn included Rome in its papal 
as well as its pagan form. That is, that the rule of 
the popes of Rome was included in the scope of this 
prophecy. And so the prophetic period was stretched 
out to cover the time-history of those powers. To do 
this it was held that the 2,300 days were symbolic of 
the same number of years. The next effort was to 
find a starting-point for these years. There is nothing 
in the eighth chapter of Daniel that gives any clue to 



The Tzventy-Three Hundred Days. 91 

the time of the commencement of this period, and they 
therefore sought it in the following chapters. Chap- 
ter nine contains a vision and prophecy of seventy 
weeks reaching from a specific point of history to 
Messiah. Following are the words : "Seventy weeks 
are determined upon thy people. . . . Know there- 
fore and understand that from the going forth of the 
commandment to restore and build Jerusalem unto 
Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and three- 
score and two weeks." Dan. 9:24, 25. 

Beyond question the time of the beginning of the 
seventy weeks is here given. But that was not what 
the expositors of the 1844 time theory wanted. They 
desired an event or point of time for the beginning 
of the 2,300 days, and as they found none in Daniel, 
they decided to take the same date as that of the be- 
ginning of the seventy weeks ! 

No other Bible expositors, as far as we know, had 
up to that time ever held that there was any connec- 
tion between the 2,300 days of the eighth chapter and 
the seventy weeks of the ninth chapter. That dis- 
covery was left for the late William Miller. His ar- 
gument was that one definition of the word rendered 
".determined" (Dan. 9:24) is "to cut off/" and he 
concluded therefore that seventy weeks were cut off 
from the 2,300 days, and that the seventy weeks were 
the first part of the 2,300 day period. By this means 
he tried to make it appear that Christ would come in 
1844, which at that time he ardently desired to prove. 

The candid reader can but notice that this theory 



92 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

that the seventy weeks are a part of the 2,300-day 
period is all pure supposition, and a very unnatural 
supposition at that. A much more reasonable con- 
jecture would be that the seventy weeks were cut off 
or separated from all time as the limit of God's for- 
bearance with the chosen people. Or that God "de- 
termined" that from the beginning of the period of 
restoration, which dated from this decree of the Per- 
sian king, the Jewish people should have seventy 
weeks or 490 years of favor. The same word "de- 
termined" is also used in verse 27 of the same chap- 
ter with precisely the same meaning; that is, some- 
thing fixed or decreed. The Dutch translation reads 
"allotted," which exactly brings out the sense. 

But having arrived at the conclusion above set 
forth that the seventy weeks were the first part of the 
2,300-days period and that the days would expire in 
1844, the next and absorbing question was what 
would then occur to mark the termination of the days. 
The text (Dan. 8:14) says nothing of the end of the 
world, but declares that at the end of the days the 
sanctuary would be cleansed. These expositors, how- 
ever, were fully equal to the occasion. Some ambigu- 
ous texts that seem to convey the idea that the land 
of Canaan was the sanctuary were found, and from 
that attenuated basis they jumped to the most tremen- 
dous conclusion that the whole earth would be cleansed 
by fire in 1844! 

The period of the excitement which the preach- 
ing of this doctrine caused, we do not care to de- 



The Twenty-Three Hundred Days. 93 

scribe. Neither men, their motives, nor actions are 
under discussion in this treatise. We are willing to 
let the mantle of kindly Christian charity cover them 
and all their doings, while we concern ourselves with 
facts which are apparent to all. The Lord did not 
come; the earth was not cleansed by fire or in any 
other way. 

Soon after the passing of the set time without in- 
cident, another theory was advocated: that the sanc- 
tuary, referred to in the prophecy (Dan. 8: 14), that 
was to be cleansed at the end of the days, was the 
sanctuary in heaven, where Christ as the High Priest 
of the Christian age ministers ; that in harmony with 
its type — the Jewish sanctuary — it would be cleansed 
once, at the close of Christ's ministration; that this 
work of cleansing would only occupy a period of 
time commensurate with the similar work of the 
Jewish high priest, and that when this cleansing was 
accomplished the Lord would come. This cleansing 
was explained to be the work of judgment and the 
blotting out of the sins of all who had by repentance 
and faith obtained forgiveness. 

At the first, some were inclined to think that as 
one whole day of the Jewish temple service was de- 
voted to the cleansing of the temple, a proportionate 
portion of time would be used in the cleansing of the 
heavenly sanctuary ; that is, one-three-hundred-and- 
sixty-fifth part of the whole period of Christ's min- 
istration. Assuming that he entered upon his work 
as intercessor upon his ascension to heaven a. d. 31, 



94 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

and changed his ministration from the first to the 
second apartment of the heavenly sanctury, to be- 
gin the cleansing of it in 1844, one-three-hundred-and- 
sixty-fifth part of that time would be between five and 
six years. 

So if Christ should use the same proportion of the 
whole period of the time of his ministration for the 
cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary that was used 
by the Jewish high priest in the cleansing of the Jew- 
ish sanctuary^ the work should have been accomplished 
and Christ should have come before 1850. 

Indeed, a very prominent exponent of the theory 
that Christ began to cleanse the sanctuary in heaven 
in 1844, and who claims to have the Spirit of Proph- 
ecy as the result of visions and revelations from the 
Lord, about 1850 said: — 

"Some are looking too far off for the coming of 
the Lord. Time has continued a few years longer 
than they expected, therefore they think it may con- 
tinue a few years more. ... I saw that the time 
for Jesus to be in the most holy place was nearly fin- 
ished, and that time can not last but very little 
longer." — Early Writings, p. 49. But according to 
this theory he has now been engaged in the work of 
cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary over sixty-three 
years, or fifty-seven years since the work was "al- 
most finished " ! Allowing that his work in both 
apartments of the sanctuary has been carried forward 
ever since his ascension, that is, 1872 years, and that 
since the year a. d. 1844, he has been in the second 



The Twenty-Three Hundred Days. 95 

apartment cleansing the sanctuary, this cleansing has 
now occupied over one-thirtieth part of the whole 
time of his ministration thus far, instead of one-three- 
hundred-and-sixty-fifth part, as was the case of the 
Jewish temple. The comparison of the length of time 
as used by the Jewish high priest in his sanctuary, 
and that of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary is based 
on the supposition that the Jewish priests actually used 
the whole of one day in the work of cleansing, — some- 
thing that can not be proved. Thus upon their own 
showing the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is 
not yet accomplished although sixty-three years, or 
over one-thirtieth part of the time of Christ's whole 
intercessory work thus far has already been given to 
what is claimed to be his special and closing work. 
It is not the intention of the writer to enter upon 
any discussion here in regard to the ministration of 
Christ as our mediator in the heavenly courts ; that 
he acts in that capacity, we have no doubt, but we 
have very serious doubts that he goes through all the 
sprinklings, washings, and various maneuvers per- 
formed by the Jewish priests, or that he moves around 
from place to place during his ministration. Such 
performances would seem puerile and unnecessary. 
That Christ, upon his ascension, went into the ho- 
liest of all and into the very presence of God, is sus- 
ceptible of the clearest proof. See Hebrews 1:3; 
6:19, 20; 10:12, 19; 12:2; Acts 2:33; Rev. 3:21. 
In studying the work of Christ, compared with the 
Jewish types, it would be well for us to remember 



96 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

the words of Paul, that the shadow of the good things 
to come is "not the very image of the things." Heb. 
10:1. 

Another unexplainable feature of the 2,300-day 
theory is that while this period is alleged to cover a 
time that a desolating power, claimed to be Rome, is 
treading down the people of God, the beginning of 
this period is placed 457 years before Christ, under 
the reign of a benevolent Persian king, centuries be- 
fore Rome, or even Greece, which preceded Rome, 
came into the field of prophecy. 

More than that: according to this theory the pe- 
riod of desolation dates from a decree of the Persian 
king, at that time the greatest monarch in the world, 
for the restoration of the temple and its services, a 
restoration which was actually carried out and which, 
with the exception of the interruption accomplished 
by Antiochus Epiphanes, lasted until the destruction 
of Jerusalem by the Romans in a. d. 70. 

It is therefore incumbent on those who hold this 
theory to tell in what way Rome trod down the sanc- 
tuary and the host during the three centuries in which 
it had no connection with the Jewish people or author- 
ity of any kind over the land of the sanctuary. 

And as this little horn power was to tread down 
the sanctuary and the host during the whole of the 
2,300-day period, and as the Mohammedan powers 
have held possession of the land of the sanctuary since 
a. d. 837, those who hold this view must also tell in 
what way Rome has trodden down the sanctuary since 



Not Twenty-Three Hundred Years. 97 

it passed out from under Roman power? And since 
the treading down of the host and the sanctuary was 
to cease at the close of the period, claimed to end in 
1844, they must also inform us in what way there 
has been any cessation of the treading down of the 
sanctuary and of the host since 1844. Their theory 
will not allow of any satisfactory answer to these 
very natural and pertinent queries. 

A theory that causes such sad and tremendous dis- 
appointments and that is permeated with such far- 
fetched and illogical conclusions carries in itself the 
proof that it is radically wrong. 

We therefore entirely discard the theory that Rome 
in any form whatever is represented by the little horn 
of Daniel 8, and take the more rational view that the 
Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes is meant, evidence 
of which we have abundantly supplied. 

NOT TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED YEARS. 

Attention will now be called to the study of the 
prophetic period as a literal rather than a symbolic 
prophecy. And in order to bring it once more for- 
cibly and clearly before the reader, another quotation 
of the text is here given : " Then I heard one saint 
speaking, and another saint said unto that certain 
^saint which spake, How long shall be the vision con- 
cerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of 
desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to 
be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto 
two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the 



98 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

sanctuary be cleansed/ 7 Dan. 8:13, 14. Really the 
question is this : How long shall this desolating power 
tread down the people of God and defile the sanctuary 
of Jehovah? and the reply is, that this desolation 
shall continue for twenty-three hundred days, and at 
the end of that period of time the sanctuary will be 
cleansed from its pollution. 

Thus far, for the sake of convenience and facility 
of expression, we have referred to this prophetic pe- 
riod as the 2,300 days, but now, in the interests of 
truthful exposition, it is absolutely necessary to state 
that there is no such prophetic period as the 2,300 
days. If the reader will look at the marginal reading 
of this text, it will be found to read thus : "Unto twenty- 
three hundred evening morning then shall the sanc- 
tuary be cleansed." The translators here put the 
word " day " in the place of evening morning, but 
these are left in the margin. This is not a case where 
a word or words are added to bring out the sense. 
The words "evening morning" are entirely omitted. 
These words are as well understood as any other 
words. Every one knows what the evening is, and 
what the morning is. The morning is the first part 
of the day, the evening, the last part. We say "Good 
morning" until noon; after that we say "Good eve- 
ning." This expression is a very peculiar one. 
There must, therefore, be a good and sufficient rea- 
son for its use here. If the Lord had wanted to con- 
vey the idea of "days," he certainly would not have 
said "evening morning." This vision is specifically 



Not Twenty-Three Hundred Years. 99 

referred to as "The vision of the evening and the 
morning/' Dan. 8 : 26. Not that the vision was given 
in the evening or in the morning, but it had reference 
to something that was done evening and morning. 
Hence the expression, "Unto two thousand three hun- 
dred evening morning." To ascertain what was 
done, we have only to study the work of the little 
horn: "By him the daily sacrifice was taken away." 
Dan. 8:11. This was the crowning act of impiety 
and wickedness perpetrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. 
At what time were these sacrifices offered? — Every 
evening and every morning. "Now this is that which 
thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first 
year, day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt 
offer in the morning ; and the other lamb thou shalt of- 
fer at even." Ex. 29 : 38, 39. Then it is apparent that 
the continuance of this power over the people of God 
for 2,300 evening mornings would mean just that 
same number of sacrifices interrupted or prevented. 
And it is also equally apparent that since there were 
two sacrifices offered each day, one in the morning 
and one in the evening, the desolation and treading 
down of the sanctuary would last just half as many 
days as there were evening mornings. We do not 
question the fact that sometimes a day in prophecy 
represents a year, but in this case even the word 
"day" is not in the original, as has been seen. 

Another point must now be considered. There is 
no absolute agreement of the various versions of the 
scriptures as to the number of these evening morn- 



100 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

ings. Our version, and probably the majority of the 
versions, makes it twenty-three hundred. The Vati- 
can copy of the Septuagint reads twenty-four hun- 
dred. "The answer made to this question was, unto 
two thousand three hundred days, or as the LXX 
reads, twenty-four hundred days. Or as certain cop- 
ies mentioned by Jerome read, "twenty-two hundred 
days." — Scotfs Commentary on Daniel 8. What ver- 
sions they were that give the period as 2,200 days, 
we have not as yet learned. But as they were re- 
ferred to by the learned Jerome, who lived in the 
fourth century, they must have been among the ear- 
liest or oldest copies. As we look at this matter, it 
makes little practical difference which one of these 
versions is correct, since a proper understanding of 
the prophecy makes it clear that it does not greatly 
concern us, but it is well to know the truth of the mat- 
ter, so as to avoid a false and misleading explanation. 
No one now contends for absolute verbal inspira- 
tion and infallibility of all the words in any transla- 
tion of the Scriptures. None of the first MSS. are 
now in existence; and undoubtedly many copies of 
the older MSS. of the Old Testament were lost or 
destroyed before the oldest now in existence were 
taken. Thus there are slight variations between the 
different versions which in no way detracts from their 
validity. As to the point under discussion, — the num- 
ber of days, or rather evening mornings, — there is 
only one way to ascertain which one, if any, of these 
periods, the 2,200, 2,300, or 2,400, is right. Find the 



A Remarkable Fulfilment. 101 

exact time when the daily sacrifice was taken away 
and the abomination of desolation set up. Then as- 
certain, if possible, when that abomination of desola- 
tion was taken away, the sanctuary cleansed of its 
defilement, and the worship of the true God resumed 
by the offering again of the daily sacrifices, that were 
commanded as the national act of worship of his 
chosen people. If the time so ascertained shall agree 
with any one of these periods, this agreement would 
be proof as strong as Holy Writ that that period is 
the right one. 

A REMARKABLE FULFILMENT. 

The attention of the reader is now invited to the 
first book of Maccabees. No one can deny that this 
apocryphal scripture is good history, nor can it be 
proved that it is not as truly inspired as the book of 
Daniel. The Jewish people have always held these 
apocryphal writings in the highest estimation. The 
text to which we will refer to find the exact date of 
the cessation of the Jewish sacrifice and the setting 
up of the abomination of desolation has been quoted 
before in this treatise, but will now be quoted again: 
"Now the fifteenth day of the month Casleu on the one 
hundred and forty and fifth year they [Antiochus 
Epiphanes and his hosts] set up the abomination of 
desolation upon the altar and builded idol altars 
throughout the cities of Judea on every side." 1 Mac. 
1 : 54. Of the suspension of the daily sacrifices, read 
the following: "A stop was put to both morning and 



102 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

evening sacrifices, not one of the servants of the true 
God daring to come and adore Him there/' — Rollins 
History, Book 18, p. 13. Of the defilement of the 
sanctuary, the following testimony is offered : " This 
monarch [Antiochus Epiphanes] was one of the most 
cruel, rapacious, and tyrannical princes that ever 
achieved infamous immortality. He vented his wrath 
upon the Jews as though he were mad [crazy]. 
Onias III was high priest at that time. Antiochus 
dispossessed him of his great office and gave it to his 
brother, a Hellenized Jew, who erected in Jerusalem 
a gymnasium after the Greek style. But the king, a 
zealot in paganism, bitterly and scornfully detested 
the Jewish religion, and resolved to root it out. His 
general, Appollonius, had orders to massacre the peo- 
ple in the observance of their rites ; to abolish the 
temple services, and the Sabbath, to destroy the sa- 
cred books and to introduce idol worship. The altar 
on Mount Moriah was especially desecrated and aft- 
erwards dedicated to Jupiter. A herd of swine were 
driven into the temple and there sacrificed; this out- 
rage was to the Jews ' the abomination of desolation ' 
which could never be forgotten or forgiven/' — Jewish 
Heroes, by John Lord. 

Another well-known historian makes the follow- 
ing statement: "The conqueror [Antiochus Epiphanes] 
marched without delay against Jerusalem, put to death 
in three days' time 40,000 of the inhabitants and seized 
as many more to be sold as slaves. . . . He entered 
every court of the temple, pillaged the treasury, seized 



A Remarkable Fulfilment. 103 

the sacred utensils and the golden candlesticks, the 
table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and thus col- 
lected a booty to the amount of 1,800 talents. He 
then commanded a great sow to be sacrificed upon the 
altar of burnt offering, part of the flesh to be boiled, 
and the liquor of the unclean animal sprinkled upon 
every part of the temple, and thus desecrated with 
the most defilement the sacred place the Jews had 
considered for centuries the one holy spot in the uni- 
verse/' — Milman's Works, Book 9, pp. 506, 507. 

After reading the foregoing statements, can any 
one doubt that the sanctuary was polluted, or that 
this impious act of defilement and the subsequent 
cleansing of the holy place should be made a matter 
of earnest inquiry and explanation? Much more evi- 
dence upon this point might be adduced. 

In this extremity, the Jewish cities desolated, their 
sanctuary trodden down and polluted, their national 
acts of worship prevented, and a large number of the 
Jews becoming the open and avowed adherents of 
Antiochus and his pagan worship, the Lord raised up 
a mighty deliverer in the person of Judas Maccabeus. 

If the reader has never read the first book of the 
Maccabees, he should do so at the first opportunity. 
After reading, he will be ready to agree with the fol- 
lowing statement : — 

"After the heroic deeds of Joshua, Gideon, and 
David, no warriors appeared in Jewish history equal 
to Judas Maccabeus and his brothers in bravery, in 
patriotism, and in noble deeds. They delivered the 



104 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

Hebrew nation when it had sunk into abject submis- 
sion, under the kings of Syria, and when its glory and 
strength alike had departed. . . . No hero that chiv- 
alry had produced surpassed him in courage and abil- 
ity; his exploits would be fabulous and incredible if 
not so well attested. He is not a familiar character, 
since the apocrypha, from which our chief knowledge 
of him and his deeds is derived, now rarely are read." 
"Jewish Heroes/' by John Lord, p. 429. Of the war 
waged by this Jewish hero for the delivery of his 
people and the recovery and purification of the tem- 
ple, it is only necessary to describe the final results 
that mark the fulfilment of the prophecy under con- 
sideration. Describing the gathering of his small 
army, Rollin says: "He [Judas] made much use of 
this place (Maspha) because as Jerusalem was in the 
hands of their enemies, and the sanctuary trampled 
upon, they could not assemble in it to solemnize that 
religious act." Book 18, p. 137. 

After the signal defeat of the Syrians by Judas 
and his small band of heroes, the first act of the vic- 
tors was to cleanse the defiled temple and restore the 
sacrifices. The Syrians still held the strong military 
tower of the city, but Judas did not wait for victory 
over this force. " Judas took precautions to keep a 
body of armed men upon the watch against the Syr- 
ian garrison in the citadel and then proceeded to in- 
stall the most blameless of the priests in their office; 
to repair the sacred edifice, to purify every part from 
the profanation of the heathen, to construct a new 



A Remarkable Fulfilment. 105 

altar, to replace out of the booty all of the sacred 
vessels, and at length to celebrate a feast of dedica- 
tion, a period of eight days, — which ever after was 
held sacred in the Jewish calendar." — Milman's Works, 
Vol. 2, pp. 14, 15. 

Another historian has given the following graphic 
description of the cleansing and the dedication of the 
sanctuary : — 

"Judas had now leisure to cleanse the sanctuary 
and dedicate it. . . . He pulled down the defiled al- 
tar of burnt offering and rebuilt it. Cleansed the 
sanctuary, hallowed the desecrated courts, made new 
holy vessels, decked the front of the temple with 
crowns and shields of gold. . . . When all was 
cleansed and renewed, a solemn service of reconse- 
cration was celebrated; the sacred fire was kindled 
on the altar, thousands of lamps were lighted, the 
sacrifices were offered, and the people thronged the 
courts of Jehovah, and with psalms of praise, festive 
dances, harps, lutes, and cymbals made a joyful noise 
unto the Lord. It was forever after, as long as the 
temple stood, held a sacred yearly festival and called 
the Feast of Dedication." — Jewish Heroes, by John 
Lord, p. 452. 

Read also the following from a Jewish historian: 

"The work of restoration was carried on with such 
ardor that the inauguration of the temple could take 
place on the 25th of Kisleu, the self-same day on 
which, three years before, Antiochus had the wor- 
ship to cease, and had defiled the temple by dedicating 



106 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

it to Jupiter Olympus. This anniversary of a profa- 
nation predicted centuries before as the * abomination 
of desolation' (Dan. 11:31), but from which the 
Lord had now vouchsafed, with ' a strong hand and 
outstretched arm,' to cleanse his altar and his sanc- 
tuary, so that the day had indeed been changed ' from 
sorrow to joy, from mourning into feasting,' — this an- 
niversary now so glorious was ushered in with all 
imaginable solemnity. At the earliest dawn, the 
priests' trumpets were sounded; a new fire was kin- 
dled by the striking of two fire-stones, and as soon 
as the flames ascended to heaven, the lamb of the daily 
sacrifice was offered, the lamps were lighted, the usual 
portion of incense was burned, and every other part 
of the divine service performed according to the law 
of Moses; and from that day it was not again dis- 
continued until the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus." 
— Post-Biblical History of the Jews, by Raphael, VoL 
1, pp. 262, 263. 

Can any person of a candid mind read the forego- 
ing and fail to see that the career of Antiochus Epiph- 
anes, his destruction of the mighty and holy people, 
the profanation of the temple which he accomplished, 
his final defeat, tragic death, and the cleansing and 
rededication of the sanctuary, and the restoration of 
the worship of God in the place and way he appointed 
is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel 8? 

Here was a pollution of the sanctuary that all can 
understand. No fancy is required to grasp the idea. 
It was a real pollution, testified to by many reputable 



A Remarkable Fulfilment. 107 

witnesses, and described by writers of both sacred 
and common history. The same is true of the cleans- 
ing. It was no idealistic figment of the imagination, 
but a real transaction, vouched for by reputable 
historians in as clear and veracious a manner as any 
event of history. The sanctuary was polluted and 
trodden down; it was also cleansed of its pollution 
and rededicated to the worship and service of God, 
according to the prophecy. 

But the most important statement in reference to 
this cleansing is yet to come. We have reserved it 
to the last because it is the original description, as 
given in the apocrypha, and especially as it gives the 
date of the cleansing — the crucial test of the prophetic 
period that covers the time of the desolation of the 
temple and the suspension of the daily sacrifices: 
"Then said Judas to his brethren, Behold our ene- 
mies are discomfited; let us go up to cleanse and 
dedicate the sanctuary. ... So he chose priests of 
blameless conversation, such as had pleasure in the 
law, who cleansed the sanctuary and bare out the de- 
filed stones into an unclean place. Now on the five 
and twentieth day of the ninth month (which is called 
the month Casleu) in the hundred forty eighth year, 
they rose up betimes in the morning and offered sacri- 
fices according to the law upon the new altar of burnt 
offering, which they had made. Look at what time, 
and what day the heathen had profaned it, even in 
that was it dedicated with songs, and citherns, and 
harps,, and cymbals. Moreover, Judas and his breth- 



108 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

ren with the whole congregation of Israel ordained 
that the days of the dedication of the altar should be 
kept in their season from year to year by the space 
of eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the 
month Casleu, with mirth and gladness." 1 Mac. 
4:43, 52-56, 59. 

This is the feast of dedication referred to in John 
10:22. 

Let us now give close attention to the length of 
time between the desecration and the cleansing of the 
sanctuary as here described. 

It is plainly stated that the abomination of desola- 
tion was set up on the fifteenth day of the month 
Casleu in the one hundred and forty-fifth year. 

Casleu is the ninth month of the year, as may be 
seen by consulting any Jewish table of months, and 
as it is plainly said to be in the description of the 
cleansing at the end of the period of desolation. The 
cleansing took place on the 25th day of the 148th 
year. From the 15th day of Casleu on the 145th 
year to the 15th day of Casleu on the 148th year 
there would be 37 months, which at 29^4 days to a 
month would amount to 1,091 days. Add to this the 
10 days from the 15th day of Casleu to the 25th day, 
when the sanctuary was cleansed, would make the 
whole time 1,100 days, completing the period of deso- 
lation and treading down and marking the day of 
cleansing. 

Eleven hundred days, and two sacrifices a day, 
would exactly harmonize with the 2,200 evening- 



A Remarkable Fulfilment, 109 

morning period, and marks the readings that give 
that length of time as the right ones. And certainly 
there would not be one chance in a million that the 
number of days between these two events, the dese- 
cration and the cleansing of the sanctuary, would 
come out right to a day with any one of these periods, 
the 2,200, 2,300, or the 2,400, unless it were the right 
period. This explanation amounts therefore to a 
demonstration; no other explanation that has ever 
been offered does. If it had been in harmony with the 
time as given in our version, it would have been no 
better or clearer. We challenge any student of the 
prophetic Word to find another prophecy in the Scrip- 
tures that has had a more remarkable and absolutely 
accurate fulfilment; and we may well join with the 
angel in exclaiming, "And the vision of the evening 
and the morning which was told is true." Dan. 8 : 26. 

Notice, too, the striking manner in which attention 
is called to the day and date of the cleansing: "Look 
at what time and what day the heathen had profaned 
it." Why notice the time unless somewhere God in 
his Word had foretold the work of this evil power, 
and had stated the time of its continuance. 

Right here we wish to make a very interesting and 
important quotation from the great Jewish historian, 
Josephus : — 

" Daniel wrote that he saw these visions in the 
plain of Susa, and he hath informed us, that God 
interpreted the appearance of the vision after the fol- 
lowing manner: He said that the ram signified the 



110 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning: 

kingdom of the Medes and Persians, and the horns 
those kings that were to reign in them ; and the last 
horn signified the last king, and that he should exceed 
all kings in riches and glory; that the he-goat signi- 
fied that one should come and reign from the Greeks 
who would twice fight with the Persians and over- 
come him in battle, and should receive his entire do- 
minion: that by the great horn which sprang out of 
the head of the he-goat was meant the first king; and 
the springing up of four horns upon its falling off, 
and the conversion of every one of them to four quar- 
ters of the earth signified the successors that should 
arise after the death of the first king and the parti- 
tion of the kingdom among them, and that they should 
be neither his children or his kindred, that they should 
reign over the habitable earth for many years; and 
that from among them should arise a certain king, 
that should overcome our nation and our laws, and 
he should take away our political government and spoil 
the temple, and forbid the sacrifice for three years' 
time. And indeed it so came to pass that our nation 
suffered these things under Antiochus Epiphanes ac- 
cording to Daniel's vision and what he wrote many 
years before it came to pass." — Antiquities of the Jews, 
Book, 10, pp. 199, 200. 

From this statement several important deductions 
may be clearly drawn: 

1. Josephus believed that Antiochus Epiphanes 
was symbolized by the little horn of Daniel 8. 

2. That the prophetic period of that chapter gave 



A Remarkable Fulfilment. Ill 

the length of the period of desolation that Antiochus 
brought upon the Jewish people. 

3. That he did not believe that period was one of 
many hundreds of years. 

4. That he did not believe it was a period of time 
as long as 2,300 literal days; for he said it was only 
three years, and 2,300 literal days would be over six 
years. 

5. He must therefore have computed the time by 
the number of sacrifices prevented; that is, by eve- 
ning mornings, an evening and a morning for each 
day. 

One further statement in reference to this time 
period: If we allow that the evening mornings repre- 
sent days, and the days represent years, and that they 
commenced b. c. 457, we are now nearer the end of 
the 2,400-day period than we are to the end of the 
2,300-day period. That is to say, we are now nearer 
to a. d. 1944 than we are to a. d. 1844, having passed 
the half-way mark in a. d. 1894. We are therefore 
not surprised to learn that some persons have already 
transferred their faith to the 1944 date, and are now 
looking forward to a. d. 1944 with the same anticipa- 
tion that their fathers in faith looked for the end of 
the 2,300 days and the coming of the Lord in a. d. 
1844, for— 

" Error cherished long, e'en when confessed, 
With deep reluctance leaves the human breast." 



112 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

CLEANSING OF THE HOLY PLACE. 

But there may be those who have so strongly im- 
bibed the idea that the sanctuary in heaven must be 
cleansed that they may still feel that even if the cleans- 
ing of the sanctuary referred to in Daniel 8 was the 
earthly sanctuary, and that that cleansing is past, 
still the sanctuary in heaven must at some time be 
cleansed. 

As our effort is to assist all who have held this 
erroneous view to see the mistake into which they 
have been drawn, it seems proper to give more espe- 
cial attention to the work of Christ as related to the 
heavenly places. 

As a sacrifice for sin, Christ was the antitype of 
the sacrificial offerings ordained by the law of Moses. 
But it would not be proper for us to claim that in the 
treatment he received previous to his death, or in the 
manner of his death, there was to be an exact parallel 
with the sacrifices that prefigured his sacrifice. It is 
enough that in a broad and general sense he was a 
sacrifice for our sins. 

The same principle holds true in regard to his 
mediatorial work. No person can really believe that 
he will do all things that the priests of old did; nor 
is it necessary to believe that he will minister for a 
certain length of time in one apartment of the sanc- 
tuary in heaven, and then in another. "Heaven it- 
self" is said to be the place of his ministry, and the 
texts which prove that upon his ascension to heaven 
he went immediately into the very presence of God, 



Cleansing of the Holy Place. 113 

have already been cited and need not be referred to 
again. 

The attention of the reader is now invited to the 
book of Hebrews, and especially to the texts that are 
claimed to prove that the heavenly sanctuary will be 
cleansed. "Now when these things were thus or- 
dained, the priests went always into the first taber- 
nacle accomplishing the service of God. But into the 
second went the high priest alone once every year, 
not without blood, which he offered for himself, and 
for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost thus 
signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not 
yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was 
yet standing." Heb. 9:6-8. 

In the above quoted words the work of the Jew- 
ish high priest on the day of atonement is referred 
to, but not to say that Christ would cleanse the sanc- 
tuary in heaven, but only to say that that act signified 
that the way into the holiest of all — heaven — was not 
then manifest. In other words, that the God-man, 
Christ Jesus, would enter heaven itself as our mediator, 
was not then manifest or understood, and that was 
what that act of the high priest signified. Now how- 
ever, knowing it, we can "enter into the holiest by 
the blood of Jesus." Verse 19. 

"But," says one, "is it not stated that it is neces- 
sary that the heavenly things must be purified ? " — 
Yes, but this was not a cleansing from sin. There is 
no such statement in the Scripture anywhere or any- 
thing equivalent thereto. A fatal mistake in Scrip- 



114 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

ture exposition has been made in thinking that the 
purification of the heavenly things referred to in Heb. 
9 : 24, is the antitype of the cleansing of the earthly 
sanctuary on the great day of atonement as described 
in Lev. 16:19. 

A careful study of Heb. 9 : 24 with context will 
make it apparent to every candid person that no ref- 
erence is there made to the work of the Jewish high 
priest on the day of atonement. The comparison is 
not between the high priest and Christ, but between 
the work of Moses and that of Christ as it is in other 
places in the same book; and the work described is 
not the cleansing of the sanctuary from sin, for Moses 
never cleansed the sanctuary, but it is the ratification 
of the covenant and the dedication of the sanctuary 
by Moses before the services in that earthly sanctuary 
could begin. Thus we read: "For when Moses had 
spoken every precept to all the people according to 
the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with 
water, and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled 
both the book, and all the people, saying, This is the 
blood of the testament which God enjoined unto you. 
Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the taberna- 
cle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost 
all things are by the law purged with blood ; and with- 
out shedding of blood is no remission. It was there- 
fore necessary [referring to the work of Moses] that 
the patterns of things in the heavens should be puri- 
fied with these; but the heavenly things themselves 
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not 



Cleansing of the Holy Place. 115 

entered into the holy places made with hands, which 
are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now 
to appear in the presence of God for us." Heb. 9: 
18-24. 

Please study this scripture carefully. The dedica- 
tion or purification of the sanctuary by Moses and 
the better things that Christ does is the topic. The 
blood of calves and water was used with the blood of 
goats, but on the day of atonement the blood of only 
one goat was taken into the sanctuary, or used in any 
way for the cleansing. On the day of atonement the 
priest took the blood of the goat and put it upon the 
horns of the altar and sprinkled it upon the altar 
seven times (Lev. 16: 18, 19). But in the comparison 
in Heb. 9 : 24, Moses sprinkled all the vessels of the 
ministry, the book of the covenant, all the people and 
the tabernacle itself, and dedicated it. So Christ, when 
he entered the "holiest" in heaven, dedicated it, or 
purified it by his own blood. It was all done when 
he entered it. There he is now in the presence of 
God as our mediator, and there has been no change 
in his ministration since he first entered it. 

Notice particularly that the Apostle refers to this 
work of Moses as a dedication (verse 18) ; and that 
the word here translated "dedicated" is from the same 
Greek word that in Heb. 10 : 20 is translated "conse- 
crated." This is absolute proof that the dedication or 
consecration of the heavenly places by Christ's blood 
and presence there is what the apostle is considering, 
and that the purification referred to by the apostle as 



1 16 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

typical of Christ's work was the ceremonial purifica- 
tion incident to the dedication of the sanctuary by 
Moses, and not the annual cleansing of the sanctuary 
as accomplished by the Jewish high priest. The heav- 
enly places were purified or dedicated when Christ 
entered them; they will never need to be cleansed 
from sin, and there is no scripture stating that such 
a cleansing of the heavenly places will ever occur. 

A FRAGILE BASIS. 

In closing, a few more remarks in regard to the 
1844 time theory may be ventured: 

The theory rests upon a frail basis of suppositions 
and assumptions not one of which is susceptible of ab- 
solute proof or demonstration. 

1. It is assumed that the little horn of Daniel 8 
is (a) symbolic of the civil and military power of 
Rome, (b) and also of the Roman Catholic Church 
as represented by the popes. 

2. It is assumed that the ninth chapter of Daniel 
is subsidiary to, and an explanation of, the eighth 
chapter. 

3. It is assumed that the "evening mornings" 
mean days. 

4. It is further assumed that each day stands for, 
or represents, a year. 

5. It is assumed that the seventy weeks of Daniel 
9 are cut off from the 2,300 days. 

6. It is assumed that the 2,300 days began where 
the seventy weeks are said to begin — b. c. 457. 



A Fragile Basis. 117 

7. It zvas assumed that the sanctuary to be 
cleansed at the end of the period was the whole 
earth. 

8. And now it is assumed that the sanctuary to 
be cleansed is in heaven and that though sixty-three 
years of time have passed since that work began, still 
the cleansing is not yet finished. 

Were there ever such remarkable calculations and 
tremendous conclusions based upon so weak, falla- 
cious grounds? If a chain is no stronger than its 
weakest link, what should be said of a chain of evi- 
dence every link of which is faulty? Is it any won- 
der that, at the time when the period was supposed 
to close, nothing whatever occurred ; that the sun rose 
and set as usual, and all the operations of nature went 
on as before? 

Of the men who made these fallacious, speculative 
calculations, and who are, to say the least, measura- 
ably responsible for the consequences, we have noth- 
ing to say. Their honesty we do not question. How 
much their judgment was biased and warped by their 
very strong desires, no man can tell. That must be 
left for a higher power than man to decide, and surely 
the Judge, of all the earth will do right. Nor do we 
desire by what is here written to cast any aspersion 
or slur upon any church or upon any individuals who 
may help to compose such church that has held and 
promulgated such views. But we wish to call atten- 
tion to the certainty that their calculations are wrong ; 
and the longer a church clings to any false theory 



118 The Vision of the Evening and the Morning. 

the more certain and disastrous will be the final con- 
sequences. 

Finally, the writer would say for himself that no 
personal pique or desire for any gain or notoriety of 
any kind has prompted him in this work. It is as 
painful for him as it can possibly be for any other 
person. He would be exceedingly glad to believe 
all that he was early taught was the truth upon the 
subject herein presented. There is no people, as a 
whole, that he loves as he does that people who still 
believe this theory. All his early associations and 
the mature years of his manhood were spent in clos- 
est labor and harmony with them, and nothing that 
is here said should be construed as a denial of the 
great Biblical truth that Christ will return to earth, 
or that that return is an event not far in the future. 
But sometimes the thought lies heavily upon the wri- 
ter's heart that not only the setting of time for the 
coming of the Lord, but even for the beginning of 
some unseen work in heaven, supposed to be prepara- 
tory for that coming, by over-zealous believers, has 
caused much more harm than good, — actually result- 
ing in unbelief in that which should be firmly be- 
lieved by all Christians. For because of it the great 
truth of the coming of the Lord has thus been seen 
by many only through the dim fog caused by wild 
and unnecessary speculations followed by deferred and 
blasted hopes and most bitter disappointment. 

To expect that all who have heretofore believed 
the theory here controverted, will upon reading this 



A Fragile Basis. 119 

treatise, at once openly renounce their former belief 
in the 1844 time theory, in which is bound up so many 
years of faith and faith's activities, would doubtless 
be expecting too much; but we do believe that the 
positions herein taken are so clear and the proofs so 
convincing that it will be studied with the serious at- 
tention that so important a subject demands, and that 
it will have the effect, sooner or later, of changing 
the minds of many persons, — eventually leading them 
away from wild speculations and fanciful interpreta- 
tions of scripture to the solid ground of truth, his- 
toric fact, reason, and enlightened common sense. 



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